BIRDS 449 



in the main channel, going out further and further, as the tide 

 ebbed, to avoid the shallows, diving at frequent intervals. 



BLACK-THEOATED DIVEE. 



Colymbus arcticus, L. 



This species is a much rarer visitant to our waters than 

 either the Eed-throated or Great Northern Divers. Indeed, all 

 the Black-throated Divers that have ever been reported to me 

 from our western estuaries turned out, on inspection, to belong 

 to the Eed-throated species, which varies widely in dimensions. 

 Some idea of the comparative scarcity of this Diver in the north 

 of England may be gathered from the fact that only two 

 specimens have been obtained in Lakeland during the whole of 

 my local experience, which covers a period of more than nine 

 years. The first of these made its appearance on the river Eden 

 a short distance above Carlisle on the 20th of March 1888. 

 The Eev. J. Phelps was the first to observe the bird diving in 

 the river, a fact which he kindly communicated to me the same 

 day. I was not, however, privileged to see it in life. It was 

 soon shot by one of the waterside keepers, who thought that it 

 was fishing for salmon fry, a conjecture which proved to be only 

 too well founded. On examination, it was found to be an 

 adult, already commencing to assume the summer livery, though 

 the new feathers were almost wholly concealed by the long 

 winter plumes. On the 1st of January 1891 a young female 

 of the Black-throated Diver was killed on Ulleswater. By a 

 curious coincidence a Eed-throated Diver was shot on the same 

 lake the same day, thus enabling me to compare the two species 

 in the flesh before the soft parts had lost their natural colours. 

 The Black-throated Diver, although a female, was the heavier 

 bird. It weighed 6 lbs., whereas the Eed-throated Diver, a 

 male, turned the scales at 4f lbs. Both birds were in good 

 condition when procured. The birds just mentioned are not 

 the only specimens that have been obtained in Lakeland. I 

 have identified one or two others, birds which were killed before 

 I took this faunal area in hand. But the foregoing specimens 

 are the only ones known to have been procured during the last 



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