414 GREY SPECKLED DIVER. Clafs II. 



live chiefly at Tea, and feed on fiih : we do not know 

 whether they breed with us, as they do in Norway •, 

 which has many birds in common with Scotland. 



II. The GREY SPECKLED DIVER. 



Greateft fpeckled Diver, or Le petit Plongeon. Brifon a<v. 



Loon. Wil.orn. 341. vi. 108. tab. 10. fig. 2. 



Rati fan. a<v. izc. Mergus Stella'.us Danis Soe- 

 Colymbus caudatus ftellatus. N. Hane. Brunnicb. 130. 



Com. Petr. iv. 424. Br. Zooi. 139. 



Defer. ^-|-^HIS fpecies weighs two pounds and a half : 

 JL its length twenty-feven inches : its breadth 

 three feet nine. The bill three inches long and turns 

 a little upwards ; the mandibles, when clofed at the 

 points, do not touch at the fides- The head is of a 

 dufky grey, marked with numerous white fpots : the 

 hind part of the neck an uniform grey: the whole up- 

 per part of the body, and greater coverts of the wings 

 dufky, fpeckled with white: the leffer coverts dufky, 

 and plain. The tail confifts of about twenty black 

 feathers ; in fome tipt with white. The cheeks and 

 whole under fide of the body of a fine glofly white : 

 and the feathers, as in all this genus, which refides 

 almoft perpetually on the water, are exceffively thick, 

 and clofe fet: the legs are dufky. 



Thefe birds frequent our feas, lakes and rivers in 

 the winter. On the Thames they are called fprat loons, 

 for they attend that fifh during its continuance in the 

 river. They are fubject to vary in the difpofition and 

 form of their fpots and colors : fome having their 



necks 



