WHITE-BILLED GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 



COLYMBUS ADAM SI, G. R. Gray. 



Colymbus adamsi, G. R. Gray, P. Z. S. 1859, p. 167 ; Yarr. 

 ed. 4, iv. p. 99, & Pref. to vol. iii. p. x ; Collett, 

 Ibis, 1894, p. 269; Dresser, Suppl. p. 413. 



Though a specimen of a large Diver with a white 

 bill killed at Pakefield on the Suffolk coast was 

 suspected to belong to the then (1859) recently 

 described Colymbus adamsi, both the identification of 

 the specimen and the validity of the species have been 

 questioned until a recent date. Professor Collett's 

 paper on C. adamsi has now set the main point at rest, 

 for he has not only proved the species to be distinct 

 from C. glacialis, but has also shown, by the examination 

 of a number of specimens, that the White-billed Great 

 Northern Diver is not uncommon on the coast of 

 Norway between October and December. It probably 

 occurs over a considerable area in the Arctic Regions, 

 whence moving southwards in autumn it is found both 

 in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 



A second British-killed specimen is preserved, in the 

 Museum at Newcastle-on-Tyne, which, according to 

 Hancock, was shot on the coast of Northumberland. 



[0. S.] 



