202 oolymbiujE. 



of C. arcticus, and, therefore, strikingly different from any speci- 

 mens of C. sej^tentrionalis examined by me. I was informed in 

 November 1837, that about four years previous to that time, a 

 bird agreeing with C. arcticus in full plumage was taken at Lurgan 

 Green, county of Louth."^ On the 5th of March, 1847, H. Bell, 

 wild-fowl shooter, saw one of these divers in full adult plumage 

 on wing in Strangford Lough ; he described it as the most beau- 

 tiful bird he had ever beheld. One is stated to have been shot 

 in the winter of 1817-48 in Dublin Bay.fJ 



Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald, jun., on the 23rd of July, 1850, passed 

 within a few yards of three birds swimming in Tralee Bay, that 

 he considered to be a black -throated diver with its two young. 

 One of these he shot, Avas hardly more than fledged, and had no 

 quill feathers, but merely down in place of them. From its 

 appearance he believed that it must have been bred in that 

 neighbourhood. " It agreed with the young C. arcticus of Selby 

 and the Lesser Imber, considered by liim as the same." 



This species, so extremely handsome when adult, appears to be 

 more rare in Ireland, in wdnter, than in England or Scotland. Very 

 interesting descriptions of its habits about its breeding-haunts in 

 Scotland are given from personal observation in the works of 

 Mr. Selby, Sir William Jardine, and Mr. St. John.§ 



* Mr. n. H. Dombrain. 

 t Ml-. R. J. Montgomery. 



X In the Report of the Dublin Nat. Hist. Society for 1 841-42 (p. 8) one of 

 these birds is mentioned as having been shot in Tralee Bay ; but Mr. R. Chute, to 

 whom the specimen referred to belongs, has iuformed me that he docs not know 

 where it was killed. 



§ 'Wild Sports, &c. of the Highlands,' eh. xxvii. ]). 215, and ' Tour in Sutherland,' 

 vol. i. pp. 8, 12, 40. These pages arc particularized, as there is no index to either 

 work. 



