380 BRITISH BIRDS. 



placed in rows, two on the end of each feather: 

 the under parts are white: quills and tail black. 

 The female does not vary from the male. 



This species seldom visits the British shores, 

 except in very severe winters. One was shot on 

 the Tyne, at Newcastle, on the i2th October, 1824, 

 supposed to have been driven from its northern 

 haunts by the severe storm, from the north-east, 

 which then raged for two days on this coast. In 

 the summer season it inhabits the north of Europe, 

 and the arctic coasts, as far as the river Ob, in the 

 Russian dominions, and Hudson's Bay, in North 

 America. The natives of some of the northern 

 countries dress or tan the skins of these birds, 

 as well as those of several other water-fowls, and 

 make them into caps, pelisses, and other warm 

 garments. They seldom quit the sea, or are seen 

 inland, except at the breeding season, when they 

 repair to the fresh water lakes in the Ferro, Isles, 

 Spitzbergen, Iceland, Greenland, Zetland, &c. 

 The female lays only two eggs, which are of a dark 

 olive brown, sparingly spotted with dark brown; 

 when she quits her nest, she flies very high, and 

 on her return darts down upon it in an oblique 

 direction. The foregoing figure was taken from a 

 preserved specimen in the Wycliffe Museum. 



