Diver. NATATORES. COLYMBUS. 415 
gress from the nest to maturity ; and we may further add, 
that the present species is always inferior in size. It is much 
more numerously and generally dispersed throughout the 
British Islands than either of its congeners, its winter mi- 
grations extending to the southern districts of England. It 
inhabits bays and inlets upon the coast, and the mouths of 
large rivers, ascending these latter through the course of the 
tide in pursuit of its prey, which consists of the fry and 
smaller species of fish. In the Thames it is a great devourer 
of the sprat, from its partiality to which, it has, amongst the 
fishermen there, obtained the name of Sprat-loon. It is also 
occasionally found more inland, residing upon our lakes and 
rivers till driven by the severity of the season to the unfrozen 
waters of the ocean. The greater part of those that visit us 
are (as might be expected from the time required to attain 
maturity), in their adolescent plumage, and of these the birds 
of the year form the larger proportion. Adult specimens 
are therefore comparatively rare, and might perhaps be es- 
timated at not more than one in fifty. This species is widely 
spread throughout the Arctic Regions of Europe, Asia, and 
America; and in the latter, according to Dr Ricuaxpson, 
it is abundant upon the coasts of Hudson’s Bay, and on the 
lakes of the interior, its haunts reaching even to the extre- 
mity of Melville peninsula. In Europe it retires during 
summer (if we except the few that breed on the northern 
Scottish lakes) to high latitudes; but during its winter or 
equatorial migration, is spread along the different continental 
coasts, and through the various lakes and rivers as far to the 
northward as Italy. In the Orkneys, as stated by Low, it 
breeds annually in a lake amongst the hills of the Isle of Hoy, 
and the nest is so situated that the bird can step from it with 
ease into the water. It forms it of moss, and a few stems of 
grass or aquatic plants mixed with a quantity of its own 
down. The eggs are two in number, rather long, and equally 
rounded at each end ; their colour is not mentioned by Low; 
but Dr Ricuarpson describes those from North America as 
Food. 
