BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 407 



COLYMBUS ARCTICUS. 

 BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 



(PLATE 35.) 



Mergus gutture nigro, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 115 (1760). 



Colymbus arcticus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 221 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimonun 



Temminck, (Naumami), Dresser, Sounders, &c. 

 Colymbus ignotus, Bechst. Naturg. DeutsM. ii. p. 782 (1791). 

 Urinator arcticus (Linn.), Cuv. Anat. Comp. i. table 2 (1799). 

 Colymbus leucopus, Bcchst. Om. Tasctenb. ii. p. 364 (1803). 

 Eudytes arcticus (Linn.}, Illiyer, Prodi: p. 283 (1811). 

 Colymbus macrorhynchos, Brehm, Vb'g. Deutschl. p. 974 (1831). 

 Colymbus balticus, Hornsch. 8f Schill. Verz. Vo'g. Pomm. p. 21 (1837). 

 Colymbus atrigularis, Homeyer, Vog. Pomm. p. 79 (1837). 



The Black-throated Diver breeds somewhat sparingly and locally in the 

 lochs of the Outer Hebrides, and in the counties of Argyll, Perth, Inver- 

 ness, Ross, and Sutherland. Elsewhere in the British Islands it can only 

 be regarded as a somewhat rare and accidental visitor in autumn or 

 winter. It is very rare on the south coast of England, but becomes 

 more frequent in its appearance on the shores of the eastern counties 

 from Yorkshire northwards. It is only known as a very rare straggler 

 to Ireland, Thompson recording only two instances of its occurrence; 

 but several other examples, of which the latest record is that of Mr. Lloyd 

 Patterson, who watched one for some time near Belfast last April, have 

 been observed in recent years. It sometimes wanders to inland sheets of 

 water. 



The Black -throated Diver appears to be a Siberian species which has 

 not yet succeeded in becoming quite circumpolar. In the west it is 

 unknown in the Faroe Islands and Iceland, and in the east, although it 

 has crossed Behring Straits into North America, it is not known with 

 certainty to breed further east than Melville Peninsula, though it may 

 possibly do so in some of the fjords on the west coast of Greenland. 

 Roughly speaking, its breeding-range may be said to be a belt, about a 

 thousand miles broad, reaching three quarters of the way round the world. 

 The Arctic circle divides this belt almost in the middle, except that in 

 "Western Europe, probably owing to the cooler summers, it breeds as far 

 south as the Baltic provinces, Pomerania, South Scandinavia, and Scot- 

 land; and in Eastern Asia on the peninsula of Kamtschatka, from the 

 same cause. A fish-eater like the Black-throated Diver can only be 



