DIVERS AND GREBES 293 



sprinkled all over with black and dark brown, with 

 larger spots of the same colour at the broader end. 



The Red-throated Diver is the smallest and 

 commonest of its kind. It is a regular visitor on 

 all our coasts during the winter. For nesting pur- 

 poses the bird goes to more lonely spots than does 

 the Black-throated species, and it selects rather the 

 edges of small moorland tarns, than islands on lakes. 

 The eggs are laid so close to the water that they 

 are often quite damp underneath. The male helps 

 the female in hatching them out. " Kark-kark- 

 karkera ! " cries this diver, and it is said that these 

 notes are uttered mostly before wet or stormy 

 weather ; hence the local name of Rain Goose. 



The divers are a most interesting class of birds, 

 and but little known to the general public. Their 

 legs and webbed feet, as well as that marvellous 

 arrangement of structure which appears, on dissec- 

 tion, for driving them through the water when they 

 dive, I shall not be able to treat of here. I have 

 examined these for hours, and then have left off, 

 wondering still. 



Sprat Divers, or Sprat Loons, have been familiar 

 to me ever since I was big enough to come stagger- 

 ing home under the light weight of a score of 

 flounders in a small hand-net over my shoulders. 

 Directly I could toddle I dabbled in and by the 

 tide. 



A north-easter is blowing, bringing with it a 

 sprinkling of snow a regular biter it is ; it hits you 

 like peas from a boy's pea-shooter, for it is frozen 



