DIVERS. 99 



The plumage is filamentous or downy, but yet 

 remarkably dense and close lying, and has a silvery 

 or satiny gloss, particularly on the under parts 

 of the body. 



The food of the Divers consists, according to 

 their size and the situations they frequent, of 

 fishes with their fry and spawn, Crustacea, water- 

 insects, tadpoles, and perhaps vegetable substances 

 occasionally. Their geographical distribution is 

 extensive, though the number of known species 

 is small ; the Grebes are widely scattered over the 

 fresh waters of the globe, but the Loons are con- 

 fined to the temperate and arctic oceans and their 

 coasts. 



GENUS COLYMSUS. (LiNN.) 



In the Loons or true Divers, the beak is long, 

 strong, straight, compressed, and pointed; the 

 edges cutting, but not notched: the nostrils, on 

 each side of the base, are perforated, and partly 

 closed by a membrane. The legs are thin, the tarsi 

 compressed, placed far back, and closely attached to 

 the hinder part of the body ; the feet large, amply 

 webbed, the outer toe longest: the hind toe 

 jointed upon the tarsus, small ; the wings short, 

 the first quill-feather longest ; the tail short and 

 rounded. 



The habits of these birds are peculiarly ma- 

 rine; they are at home amidst the desolation of 

 the polar seas, on whose wild and frost-bound 

 shores and islands they rear their young, laying 

 their eggs on the bare ground. The general 

 colours of their plumage are black and white, the 

 latter arranged in beautifully regular rows of 

 spots, which are commonly lost in winter. 



