RED-THROATED DIVER. 451 



the first Arctic voyage of Sir Edward Parry, says of the 

 Red-throated Diver, " that it breeds in the neighbourhood 

 of fresh-water ponds on the shores of Baffin's Bay, and 

 Davis' Straits. The young birds, killed in September, 

 were in the plumage in which they have been called C. 

 stellatus ; but when nestlings, the feathers of the back, 

 scapulars, and wing-coverts, were margined with white." 

 This is precisely the case in the young bird from which the 

 upper figure in our illustration was taken, and is the 

 smallest specimen I possess. The white border is first 

 interrupted at the extreme end of the feather, leaving the 

 white marks as two long lateral lines. These lines of white 

 diminish in length by degrees, leaving only one white spot 

 on each outer edge of the feather ; the term striatus, used 

 by some authors, would therefore appear to refer to an 

 earlier stage of plumage than the word stellatus, and of the 

 Speckled Divers of Bewick, the second Speckled Diver is, 

 I believe, the younger bird of the two. 



Montagu, in his Supplement, says that both sexes have 

 been killed in winter with the red throat ; and Mr. Au- 

 dubon and Mr. Dann mention that the throat remains of 

 a dark colour during winter, apparently confirming the 

 opinion that having once acquired a dark-coloured throat 

 they do not afterwards lose it at any season. M. Tem- 

 minck, in the 4th part of his Manual, states it as now 

 ascertained that the Divers have a double moult in the 

 year; and Mr. Heysham's specimen, as well as others, 

 have been found to be in moult in the spring. This is 

 certainly in favour of a temporary assumption of colour. 

 Mr. Selby mentions that, of the numbers which visit our 

 shores in winter, adult specimens might perhaps be esti- 

 mated at not more than one in fifty ; this seems a very 

 large proportion of young birds, when we consider that 

 these Divers breed but once in a summer, and seldom bring 



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