1 88 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



on the lower back, rump, and uppar tail-coverts, which are 

 almost uniform ; the back of the neck plentifully streaked 

 with white and black, the green gloss on the latter being very 

 distinct ; wing-coverts brown, rather more distinctly edged 

 and spotted with white; quills and tail blackish; crown of 

 head and neck grey, obscurely mottled with dusky stripes on 

 the former ; the nape and hind-neck very distinctly streaked 

 with black and white ; sides of face, throat, and sides of neck 

 clear slaty-grey, with a long triangular patch of vinous chestnut 

 reaching from the lower throat to the fore-neck ; remainder 

 of under surface of body white ; the upper fore-neck and sides 

 of chest streaked with black; sides of the body blackish, 

 slightly spotted with white ; the lower flanks and thighs sooty 

 brown ; under tail-coverts sooty-brown with white tips ; under 

 wing-coverts and axillaries white, the latter with dark, shaft 

 markings ; bill black ; legs and feet greenish black ; iris 

 hazel. Total length, 23*5 inches; oilmen, 2*1; wing, 10*9; 

 tail, i '8 ; tarsus, 2*65. 



Adult Female. Similar in plumage to the male. Total length, 

 2 1 '5 inches; wing, 10*8. 



Winter Plumage. Slaty-grey above, profusely speckled with 

 white in the form of twin spots on the feathers, which 

 are much smaller on the mantle, lower back, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts ; the head and neck greyer and thickly 

 streaked with narrow lines of dull white ; lores, sides of face, 

 and under surface of body white, mottled with black centres 

 to the feathers on the sides of the fore-neck and chest ; the 

 sides of the body and flanks slaty-black, mottled and edged 

 with white ; under wing-coverts and axillaries white, with 

 dusky brown centres along the latter; the lower primary 

 coverts externally ashy. 



Young Birds in Winter Plumage. May generally be distinguished 

 by a few dusky freckled edges to the feathers of the lower 

 throat and sides of neck. 



Nestling. Covered with sooty-brown down, paler on the 

 under-surface, which becomes white as the bird grows older. 



Characters. The very different summer plumage distinguishes 

 the Red-throated from the Blue-throated Diver in the breeding 



