402 BRITISH BIRDS. 



COLYMBUS GLACIALIS. 

 GREAT NORTHERN DIVER*. 



(PLATE 35.) 



Mergus major. ) 



A/r . [ Briss. Orn. vi. pp. 105. 120 (1760). 



Mergus major nsevms, ) 



Colyinbus glacialis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 221 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Gnielin, Latham, Temminck, (Naumann), Dresser, Saunders, c. 

 Colymbus immer, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 222 (1766). 



Mersrus elacialis (Linn.), ) 



TUT rv \ I Tunst. Orn. Brit. p. 3 (1771). 



Mergus naevia (linss.), \ 



Urinator glacialis (Linti.), Cuv. Anat. Comp. i. table 2 (1799). 

 Colymbus atrogularis, Meyer, TascJienb. ii. p. 449 (1810,J?orttm). 

 Eudytes glacialis (Linn.), Ittiger, Prodr. p. 283 (1811). 

 Cepphus torquatus, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso- Asiat. ii. p. 340 (1826, ex Br'dnn,), 

 Colymbus maximus, Brehm, Vog. DeutscM. p. 971 (1831, ex Gunner). 

 Colymbus torquatus (Pall.), Keys, fy Bias. Wirb. Eur. p. xci (1840). 

 Urinator immer (Linn.), Stejn. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. v. p. 43 (1882). 



The Great Northern Diver may possibly breed in some of the wild 

 secluded lochs of the west of Scotland, the Outer Hebrides, the Orkneys, 

 and the Shetlands, although no proof of the fact has been hitherto obtained ; 

 consequently it can only be regarded as a winter visitor to our islands, 

 most abundant on the west coasts of Scotland and England. It occurs 

 less frequently on the eastern coasts, bnt occasionally visits inland waters. 

 In Ireland it is equally well known as a winter visitor, and as it is 

 occasionally obtained in summer in full breeding-plumage, it may yet 



* Dresser's statement that the Great Northern Diver is nearly circumpolar in its range 

 is evidently founded upon a series of errors. There is no evidence of this species ever 

 having occurred in the Old World east of the North Cape in Norway, except on the 

 Asiatic shores of Behring Straits. The single example supposed to have been seen by 

 Alston and Harvie-Brown near Archangel can scarcely be accepted as evidence. Henke 

 never saw the bird, and the eggs which he obtained from the Kanin peninsula were probably 

 those of Colymbus adamsi. Dresser's statement that I heard of it from the natives of the 

 valley of the Petchora is probably a misprint for the valley of the Yenesay, and even then 

 refers only to C. adamsi. Sabanaefi' does not include it in the birds of the Ural District ; 

 and the Great Northern Divers seen by Heuglin on Nova Zembla were not obtained, and 

 were probably C. adamsi. Finsch's statement that he saw it on the Obb was afterwards 

 corrected by himself, and refers to C. arcticus. Middendorff expressly states that an ex- 

 ample which he obtained on the Taimur peninsula had a yellowish-white bill, and must 

 therefore be referred to C. adamsi. There appears to be no evidence of its occurrence in 

 Japan, all the examples obtained from those islands having been found on examination to 

 be either C. arcticus or C. adamsi. 



