DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS. 159 



at the least danger the alarm is given, and the in- 

 cubating partner shuffles off in a floundering way 

 to the water. A path is soon thus worn from the 

 nest to the lake. The eggs are almost invariably 

 two, elongated, and varying in ground colour from 

 russet-brown to olive-brown, spotted sparingly with 

 blackish-brown and paler brown. When the young 

 are sufficiently matured, the inland haunts are 

 deserted, and the nomad wandering life upon the 

 sea resumed. 



BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 



The present species of Diver (much smaller than 

 the preceding), the Colymbus arcticiis of Linnaeus 

 and most other writers, is the rarest of the three 

 that visit the British Islands regularly, and perhaps 

 we might also say the most beautiful in nuptial 

 dress. All its showy colours and patterns, however, 

 are on the head, neck, and upper parts, the under 

 surface being white. The head is gray, the throat 

 patch black, above which is a semi-collar of white 

 striped vertically with black ; the sides of the neck 

 are also striped with black and white ; whilst the 

 black upper parts of the body are conspicuously 

 marked with a regular series of nearly square white 

 spots, becoming oval in shape on the wing coverts : 

 the bill is black, the irides crimson. After the 

 autumn moult all this finery is lost, and the upper 

 parts become a nearly uniform blackish - brown. 

 This Diver breeds sparingly in various parts of 

 the Hebrides and the Highlands, from Argyll to 



