460 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



pair produces these eggs, of the rarity of which they are fully 

 aware, as Herr Schneider told me they usually asked five kroner 

 for them. There are four of these eggs in the Tromso Museum 

 (some others were exhibited at a meeting of the B. 0. Club last 

 season), but Herr Schneider told me he had never seen one so 

 slightly marked as the one I bought ; it was taken on Tiiso, an 

 island four or five Norwegian miles west of Tromso. I was in- 

 formed in Tromso that Larus marinus had also been known to 

 lay these red-and-white eggs. 

 L.fuscus. — Occasionally seen. 



L. marinus. — A pair and a couple of single birds, all adult, 

 on Grindo. 



Rissa tridactyla. — Occasionally seen. 

 Uria grylle. — Adults occasionally seen in the fjord. 

 Colymbus glacialis. — A large grey Diver seen in the fjord on 

 the 13th, was probably of this species. 



[<7. adamsi. — This Diver cannot be very uncommon here. 

 Besides seven examples in the Museum, I found four (three of 

 them in full plumage) in a shop in Tromso. I was glad to have 

 the opportunity of making a careful study of plumage and shape 

 of this very distinct species ; the shape and size of the bill alone 

 would, I think, always be sufficient to identify it by.] 



G. arcticus. — A pair inhabited a little lake on high ground at 

 the south end of Tromso, near the town, which is nearly surrounded 

 by birch woods. When we visited it for the first time on the 

 13th it was still chiefly frozen up, and covered with wet and 

 frozen snow, while clean snow lay in drifts along the shores. 

 The only open water was in the middle, where there was a low 

 islet covered with yellow grass. On the open water floated a 

 Black-throated Diver in splendid plumage. It swam with neck 

 arched and the body nearly all out of the water, until I partly 

 alarmed it by demonstrations, when it sank lower, but soon came 

 up again ; presently (how we did not see) it was joined by another. 

 The Black-throated Diver in breeding dress is a most distinct 

 and striking bird ; at a little distance the white markings on the 

 scapulars appear confluent. But summer was advancing apace, 

 and by the 18th the lake was transformed into a sheet of glassy 

 water, surrounded by green birch woods ; all the ice and frozen 

 snow were gone, and the snow at the edge was all melted, save 

 one or two drifts. There were then two islands covered with 



