THE BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 
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spots on the back. At that season the bird is met with 
from the most northern parts to the south of England, but 
it is of rare occurrence beyond the middle parts of the 
latter country. v 
The Black- throated Diver is smaller than the preceding 
species, being about thirty- two inches long; the upper 
part of the head and the hind neck are light grey, the 
fore part and sides of the head darker ; the fore neck is 
purplish black, having a transverse interrupted band across 
it ; the sides and lower part of the neck are dusky, with 
white streaks; the upper parts are black, glossed with 
green and shaded with brown : there are the same white 
spots, many of a square form, as on the wings of the former 
species, and the lower parts of the body are white, with a 
dusky band along each side. 
This bird begins to appear along our northern coasts 
about the end of September, frequenting the bays and 
estuaries, but in small numbers. In winter it is seen, here 
and there, along all the coasts of Britain, the number of 
yoimg birds greatly exceeding that of the adult. Most of them 
depart by the end of April, a few only remaining to breed 
in the more northern parts of Scotland and some of its 
islands. The habits of this bird are so much like those of 
its congener, as described by Macgillivray, that we need 
not dwell upon them. Its eggs are of a brownish olive 
colour, sprinkled all over with black and dark brown. It 
is said to breed in Sweden, Norway, Lapland, and the 
extreme north of Europe generally, as well as in North 
America. 
The Red-throated Diver is considerably less than the 
last species, from which it is readily distinguishable by the 
form of its bill — that having a slight curve upwards — as 
well as by the broad band of deep orange red on the fore 
part of the neck, the sides of which, with the head and the 
throat, are bluish grey, the upper part of the head being 
marked with dark spots, and the nape, hind, and lower 
parts of the neck streaked with black and white ; the upper 
parts of the body are greenish black, and the lower parts 
white, but the sides are dark grey, and there is a grey band 
across the hind part of the abdomen. The white spots on 
