NATATORES — COLYMBIDA5 — COLYMBUS. 
285 
FAMILY COLYMBIDJE. 
Bill longer than the head, straight, robust, sharp-pointed. Nostrils basal, linear, pervious. 
Feet short and stout. Toes four; the anterior wholly palmated: hind toe short, lobated. 
GENUS COLYMBUS. Linnasus. 
Bill straight, compressed, nearly cylindrical, tapering to the tip. Tarsus compressed, with 
acute edges. Anterior toes wholly palmated ; the outer longest. Lores feathered. First 
and second quills longest. Tail short, rounded, of 18 to 20 feathers. 
THE GREAT LOON OR DIVER. 
COLYMBUS GLACIALIS. 
PLATE CXXXVn. FIG. 299. 
Colymbus glacialis, Linn. p. 221. Pennant, Arct. Zool. Vol. 2, p. 518 (mature); No. 440 (young). Wilson, 
Am. Orn. Vol. 9, p. 84, pi. 74, fig. 3. Bonaparte, Ann. Lyc. N. Y. Vol. 2, p. 420. Nut. 
Man. Orn. Vol. 2, p. 513. Audubon, B. of A. Vol. 7, p.286, pi. 476. Giraud, Birds of 
Long island, p. 378. 
Characteristics. Bill 4*0 long: rictus straight; lower mandible channelled beneath, widest 
in the middle. Adult, black, speckled with white; beneath white. 
Head and neck glossy black, with a white interrupted collar and gular 
band. Young, brownish. Length, 32"0. 
Description. Edges of the bill inflected : nasal groove short. Tarsus sharp, and covered 
with reticulated scales. Hind toe with a small membrane. Tail of twenty feathers. 
Color. Bill black. Head and neck dark greenish black. Across the throat, a band of 
white, longitudinally streaked with dusky; beneath this, another broad collar of the same 
color, and streaked in the same manner. Back black, with white quadrate spots forming 
bars. Beneath glossy white : a dusky band across the vent. Tail brownish black, fading 
into paler towards the tip. Young, brown above, obsoletely barred with dusky; sides of 
the neck streaked with dusky ; beneath white. 
Length, 31'0-33‘0. 
The Great Diver, or Big Loon, may be regarded as a perpetual resident in this State. It 
is mostly found in the interior of the State, breeding in the neighborhoods of our many beau¬ 
tiful sheets of water during the summer, and occurring on our seacoast in winter. In a nest 
near the banks of Marion river, emptying into Lake Raquet, I found two large drab-colored 
eggs, which presented remarkable discrepancies in shape ; the one being acutely pointed at 
one end, and the other more globular. This species occurs throughout the Union from Texas 
to Maine, and throughout the interior to the Columbia river. It breeds from Maryland north¬ 
wardly. Its geographical range is from 28° to 70° north latitude, and is common to Europe 
and America. 
