COLYMBUS ARCTICU Ss, Linn.

Black-throated Diver.

Colymbus arcticus, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. Deo le

Mergus gutture nigro, Briss. Orn., tom. vi. Demleltas

arcticus, Klein, Av., p. 142; no. 2.

macrorhynchos, Brehm, Handb. der Naturg. aller Vog. Deutschl., p. 974.
—— Balthicus, Hornsch., Brehm, ibid., Dee oore

megarhynchos, Brehm (Bonap.).

Cepphus arcticus, Pall. Zoog. Ross.-Asiat., tom. ii. p. 341.

Eudytes areticus, I). Prod. Syst. Mamm. et AS pe 282,

 

 

 

 

Tue Black-throated Diver is smaller than the previously described species, Colymbus glaciahs; still it is not
less beautiful in its plumage, and is more interesting as one of the water-birds which breed in this country.
Unlike its larger relative, which never breeds in our lochs and bays, a few pairs of this species annually resort
to the inland waters of the northern parts of Scotland for this purpose; yet I fear it will inevitably be lost
to us as a nidifier, if the great landed proprietors do not speedily afford it protection and allow its progeny
to depart in peace to the waters of the great deep, on which it dwells in the season of winter. How much
will it be to be regretted if such noblemen as the Duke of Sutherland and others, to whose vast domains
the bird still resorts to breed, do not exercise their authority to prevent its extirpation, which must, ere:
long, be the result of the persecution to which it is at present subjected! With what inconsistency those
people are acting who establish societies for the introduction and acclimatization of birds from different
countries, and yet totally neglect the many fine species worthy of preservation at home! I beg that
what I have here said may have some influence, and that my remark may be received in the spirit in which
it is made.

Until very lately, the Black-throated Diver annually bred on the borders, and on the islands of Loch Awe,
Loch Assynt, Loch Shin, Loch Craggie, and many others ; and in some of them it still spends the summer
months, or endeavours so to do. In Orkney, Shetland, and the Hebrides or Western Islands it is more
or less abundant, but is not known to breed there. The seas surrounding England and Scotland, from
Mount’s Bay in Cornwall to Cape Wrath in Sutherlandshire, and those which wash the shores of the
sister kingdom of Ireland are never without examples of the Black-throated Diver, either in its full summer
dress or the grey garb of winter; it is in the latter state, however, that it is mostly seen, and in which
numerous specimens are from time to time sent to the London markets. Mr. Bond, I may mention,
informs me that young birds are occasionally taken on the reservoir at Kingsbury, near London, and even
on the Serpentine in Hyde Park; and Mr. Stevens, of Norwich, writes that most of the specimens killed
in Norfolk are shot on the streams and fenny waters very far inland, as at Colney and Faversham, more than
twenty miles from the sea. It does not occur in Iceland, and has not been meet. with in Greenland. In
Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia the bird is still very abundant, and breeds on all the interior waters
of those countries, as it used formerly to do on our own. It is to these nurseries that we must look for the
preservation of the bird.

The same difference occurs in the summer and winter plumages of this species that are seen in the
Great Northern Diver; but individuals are frequently found carrying their fine barred plumage at the
period when the greater number are clothed with grey. In this latter state (the true winter livery)
the bird is known by the name of the Lesser Imber. I have many notes of the occurrence of examples
in the mature recs at what one might call the opposite season— a circumstance which strengthens the
opinion I have advanced in my description of the former species, that such birds ie probably only up
or three years old, and have assumed their finery or breeding-plumage for the first time and 2 an earlier
period than those who have reproduced their kind. I am indebted to Mr. Swaysland, of Brighton, for
a photograph of a splendid example in this dress, which was killed on the 11th of December, 1862, at
the Duke of Norfolk’s, in Sussex, and which is now in his Grace’s collection at Arundel Castle.

About thirty years ago, Sir William Jardine and Mr. Selby made a journey into Sutherland: and BOSS
shires for the purpose of observing the birds which frequent those counties ; and I think it only fair to give
their remarks on this species. ue

“Tts equatorial or winter migration in Europe extends as far as Satcaland: where it : sometimes seen
upon the larger lakes. It breeds upon the brink of the water, and, like the Northern Diver, lays but two
eggs. It dives with the same ease and as perseveringly as the other species, and can remain long submerged,