BIB.DS. 
243 
Order 8. PYGOPODES. 
Family COLYMBID^. 
373. Colymbus glacialis, L. Great Northern Diver. 
Common along the east coast in winter and spring, but more 
abundant at the latter season. We have a fine specimen in 
our collection, obtained on one of the pools of the Brora 
river in May. Found in the Kyle of Tongue all the year 
round, but most abundantly from September to February. 
We have recorded the presence of a pair on a far inland 
fresh-v?ater loch in midsummer (see Zoul., 2d Ser., p. 1309). 
We do not wish again to insist on the fact of their breeding, 
but we still adhere to the correctness of our statement as to 
their identification on that occasion. 
A common winter visitant to the county, and in stormy 
weather it not unfrequently ascends the Wick river after 
small fish, specimens having been killed above Wick Bridge. 
They are often caught in the stake-nets in the bay, oftenest 
in the months of April and May (0. MSS., 1868). There is 
a specimen in the Welbeck Abbey collection. 
Mr. Eobert Gray ^ recounts an extraordinary struggle 
which was witnessed in Sinclair Bay, Caithness, between a 
great northern diver and an angler {Lo'phius piscatorius). 
The bird, no doubt in diving, had accidentally thrust its 
head and neck into the open jaws of the fish. 
374. Colymbus arcticus, L. Black-throated Diver. 
Summer visitant, breeding on many of the lochs in the eastern 
district; rarely seen on the coast, going straight to their 
breeding-grounds, and leaving at once for the south as soon 
as the young can fly. Few large lochs are without a pair 
^ Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 413. 
