450 COLYMBIDJE. 



the neck were as pure as I observed them to be during 

 summer in Labrador ; and I have since been convinced 

 that birds of this family undergo very little if any change 

 of colouring, after they have once acquired their perfect 

 plumage, the Loon and the Black-throated Diver being 

 included in this remark. y 



East of our own shores the Red-throated Diver, in its 

 immature state, or winter dress, is taken on the coasts of 

 Holland and Picardy ; it has been taken also in Switzer- 

 land, Provence, and Italy. A single example is sometimes 

 taken in winter in Sicily and Malta. M. Temminck states 

 that this species also occurs in Japan. 



In the adult bird the beak is of a bluish horn colour ; 

 the irides red ; the front and top of the head, chin, cheeks, 

 and sides of the neck ash grey, varied with lighter grey 

 lines and spots ; back of the neck almost black, with short 

 longitudinal lines of white ; the scapulars, wing- coverts, 

 back and upper tail-coverts nearly black, speckled with 

 white ; quill-primaries black, without spots or streaks ; on 

 the throat the red colour forms a conical patch, the point 

 of which is directed upwards, the base resting on the 

 breast, which is white ; all the under surface of the body 

 white; flanks greyish-black; legs, toes, and their mem- 

 branes dark brown on one surface, pale wood brown on the 

 other. Male birds measure twenty-four inches in length, 

 and sometimes rather more ; from the carpal joint to the 

 end of the longest quill-feather eleven inches and a half. 

 Females are usually smaller, some measuring only twenty- 

 one inches in length, and but ten inches and a quarter from 

 the wrist to the end of the quill-feather. A female speci- 

 men in my own collection, killed in April, 1822, has the 

 red feathers on the throat mixed with some that are 

 white. 



Colonel Sabine, in his Supplement to the Appendix of 



