416 



according to Mr. John Hancock, was certainly shot at Embleton, on the coast of Northumberland, 

 in December 1829. Mr. Booth (Rough Notes, vol. iii.) obtained a very large Diver, which had 

 a white bill, at Hickling Broad on the 14th December, 1872, which, in all probability, was 

 referable to the present species ; and it is very possible that other specimens of the White-billed 

 Diver have been obtained in Great Britain, and been mistaken for the Great Northern Diver. 



It appears to have straggled as far south as Austria, as the Ritter von Tschusi zu SchmidhofFen 

 (Orn. Jahrb. 1894, p. 145) records the existence in the Museum of Linz, Austria, of a young 

 example procured in 1840 on the Alter See in Upper Austria. 



Prof. Collett remarks (I. c.) that "but little information concerning the habits of C. adamsi 

 has been obtained on the Norwegian coasts. Some of the specimens were caught in nets, in 

 which they had been entangled when diving. The largest male in the University Museum of 

 Christiania, from the Porsanger Fjord (Nov. 1893), was taken on a hook which was laid at a 

 depth of about 15 fathoms. In the specimens that I have dissected the stomach was filled with 

 the remains of fishes, and had a quantity of gravel in it. The last specimen received (from 

 Porsanger in Finmark, Dec. 20th, 1893) contained an example of C'ottus scorjpius (total length 

 270 mm., a full-grown female filled with roe)." 



As above stated, there is but one record of the breeding of this Diver in the Palsearctic area, 

 but it must nest not uncommonly on the northern shores of Asia. In North-west America it 

 breeds not uncommonly in Alaska. Mr. Nelson (I. c.) says that " they nest every summer in about 

 equal numbers with torquatus, even outnumbering the latter in some places. Selawik Lake and 

 the Kunguk River were the places that all seemed to claim as the points of greatest abundance. 

 The shore of Norton Bay is a breeding-ground for a few pairs, as is the low coast of Bering Straits, 

 from Golovina Bay to Port Clarence." According to Mr. Murdoch (Exp. Point Barrow, p. 127) 

 fully fledged young were seen August 7th, 1883. The breeding-grounds, he adds, are probably 

 around the swamps and lakes some distance inland. 



The adult specimen in summer plumage figured and described is in the British Museum, 

 and those in the immature and adult winter plumage are in my own collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined, besides those in the British 

 Museum, the following specimens : — 



E Mus. H. JE. Dresser. 



a, <J ad. Tromso Fjord, November 5th, 1875 ; b, <$ juv. Nsesodden, Norway, November 2?ih, 1893 

 {Prof. R. Collett). 



