DIVERS. 541 



America, although it does not include Greenland, Iceland, or the Orkneys. Some 

 writers regard, indeed, a variety inhabiting the Pacific Coast of America as a 

 distinct species, although this seems scarcely justifiable. Finally, the smallest, as 

 well as the commonest species is the circumpolar red-throated diver (C. septentri- 

 onalis), so named from the presence of a patch of reddish grey extending down 

 the throat of the adult in breeding-plumage. On the upper-parts the plumage is 

 blackish brown in colour, with a comparatively small number of spots ; the head 

 and sides of the neck being ashy-grey, while the nape is marked by streaks of 

 black, grey, and white. Young birds, in which the throat-patch is lacking, are 

 much more fully striped. Although it does not breed at the present day in Great 

 Britain to the south of Scotland, remains of this diver, discovered in the superficial 



HAUNT OF THE BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 



deposits of the East Coast, suggest that it was formerly a resident in this part of 

 England, when the climate was colder. 



Feeding almost exclusively on fish, and during the winter being oceanic in 

 their habits, the divers resort to inland lakes for the purpose of nesting. Unlike 

 the auks, they are not gregarious, consorting only in pairs, and these generally keep- 

 ing far apart from one another. Although they are strong on the wing, the back- 

 ward situation of their legs renders the divers extremely ill adapted for moving 

 upon land, where they walk with the greatest difficulty and ungainliness. Accord- 

 ingly, in order to avoid the necessity of making the attempt, the slight nest is 

 always constructed close to the water's marge, so that the sitting bird can at any 

 moment resort to her native element by merely sliding downwards from her sitting- 

 place. In contrast to their awkwardness on land, is the extreme agility displayed 

 by the divers both on and beneath the surface of the water. They may, indeed, 

 be regarded as almost the diving-birds par excellence, the great northern diver 

 having been stated to remain below the surface for a period of eight minutes, 

 and all the species will readily take a baited hook while diving. Seldom seen 



