DIVER. NATATORES. COLYMBUS. 415 



gress from the nest to maturity ; and we may further add, 

 that the present species is always inferior in size. It is much 

 more numerously and generally dispersed throughout the 

 British Islands than either of its congeners, its winter mi- 

 grations extending to the southern districts of England. It 

 inhabits bays and inlets upon the coast, and the mouths of 

 large rivers, ascending these latter through the course of the 

 tide in pursuit of its prey, which consists of the fry and 

 smaller species of fish. In the Thames it is a great devourer 

 of the sprat, from its partiality to which, it has, amongst the 

 fishermen there, obtained the name of Sprat-loon. It is also 

 occasionally found more inland, residing upon our lakes and 

 rivers till driven by the severity of the season to the unfrozen 

 waters of the ocean. The greater part of those that visit us 

 are (as might be expected from the time required to attain 

 maturity), in their adolescent plumage, and of these the birds 

 of the year form the larger proportion. Adult specimens 

 are therefore comparatively rare, and might perhaps be es- 

 timated at not more than one in fifty. This species is widely 

 spread throughout the Arctic Regions of Europe, Asia, and 

 America ; and in the latter, according to Dr RICHAEDSON, 

 it is abundant upon the coasts of Hudson's Bay, and on the 

 lakes of the interior, its haunts reaching even to the extre- 

 mity of Melville peninsula. In Europe it retires during 

 summer (if we except the few that breed on the northern 

 Scottish lakes) to high latitudes ; but during its winter or 

 equatorial migration, is spread along the different continental 

 coasts, and through the various lakes and rivers as far to the 

 northward as Italy. In the Orkneys, as stated by Low, it 

 breeds annually in a lake amongst the hills of the Isle of Hoy, 

 and the nest is so situated that the bird can step from it with 

 ease into the water. It forms it of moss, and a few stems of 

 grass or aquatic plants mixed with a quantity of its own 

 down. The eggs are two in number, rather long, and equally 

 rounded at each end ; their colour is not mentioned by Low ; 

 but Dr RICHARDSON describes those from North America as 



