A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman.

George Montagu

Date:: 1866

Credit: A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

80/440 page 52

$weiglied eight pounds six ounces, and measured two feet seven inches in length. This young female, killed in January, has the upper part of the head, back, and sides of the neck dusky black; back and scapu- lars black, obscui'ely marked with cinereous spots; in a few places the matured feathers appear on the scapulars of a deeper glossy black, marked with the clear white quad- rangular spots as in the adult: the coverts of the wings, rump, and upper part of the thighs black, -with numerous small, _pure white spots; the sides of the lower neck and breast, continuing along the sides of the body under the wings, sti’eaked black and white: the'whole under parts of the bii'd, from chin to vent, white : the tail is short and rounded, consisting of twenty black feathers tipped ■»nth white. From this immatured specimen we obtain the knowledge of the primary plumage, which is essential, because, with so little of the character of the adult, the bird might have been mistaken for some other species, had not the few square spots of white on the scapulars betrayed its title. A Northern Diver, taken alive, was kept in a pond for some months, which gave us an oppor- tunity of attending to its manners. In a few days it became extremely docile, would come, at the call, from one side of the pond to the other, and would take food from the hand. The bird had received an injury in the head, which had deprived one eye of its sight, and the other was a little impaired, but, notwithstanding, it could, by incessantly diving, discover all the fish that was thro-\wi into the pond. In defect of fish it would eat flesh. It is obseiwable that the legs of this bird are so constructed and situated as to render it incapable of walking upon them. This is probably the case with all the Divers, as well as the Grebes. When this bird quit- ted the water it shoved its body along upon the ground like a Seal, byjerks, rubbing the breast against the ground; and re- turned again to the water in a similar manner. In swimming and diving, the legs only are used, and not the wings, as in the Guillemot and Auk tribes; and by their situation so far behind, and their little deviation from the line of the body, it is enabled to propel itself in the water with great velocity in a straight line, as well as turn with astonishing quickness. The thighs of the Colymbus, as well as of the Podiceps, oj'e so closely connected Avith the body as scarcely to admit of any mo- tion, and cannot be brought sufiieiently forwards to enable them to -walk; the principal action, therefore, is in the tarsi and phalanges, or those parts usimUy called the leg and foot. At the joint which connects the tibia to the femora, or thigh-bone, there is a process at the head of the bone of considerable length, which, being firmly united with the side of the body, allows of very little motion in either of those joints; indeed the tibia is united to the body its whole length, so that the leg has scarcely any motion but at the part usually cjdled the knee. The con- formation of these bones in the ColjTnbi is most curious; the femoral joint, or bone of the thigh, is remarkably short, and stands at right angles with the body; upon this joint the tibia has a sub-rotary motion, which gives a very considerable turn of the foot, and enables the bird to steer its course with great ease and cele- rity under water, by the simple action of turning the foot more or less outwards. Ducks and most other aquatic birds throw out one leg and foot when they require to turn in the water; whereas the Divers derive the same advantage by a turn of the foot only. The Speckled Diver (Co- hjmhus stellatus) we have also had alive, and found it to be as incapable of walking, and the whole of its structure is precisely the same as Colymbus glaciaUs. The cry of both these birds varies from a high pitch to a deep croak. Diver, Redthroated.— [^Yarrell, iii. 444; Hewitson, cxxiii. 453.] Coh^mbus septen- trionaUs, Lin. Syst. i. p. 220, 3; Gmel. Syst. ii. p. 580; Ind. Orn. ii. p. 801, 5; Bewick, Br. Birds, 11, t. p. 193. Mergus gutture rubro, Bris. vi. p. Ill, 3,1.11, f. 1; lb. 8vo, ii. p. 300. Le Plongeon k gorge rouge, Bnf. viii. p. 264. Redthroated Di- ver, or Loon, Br. Zool. ii. No. 240, t. 85 ; Ib. fol. 140 ; Arct. Zool. ii. No. 443 ; Edw. t. 97; Lath. Syn. vi. p. 344, 5; PuU. Cat. Dorset, p. 17; Wale. Syn. i. 1.100; Lewin, Br. Bird^, vi. t. 230; Don. Br. Birds, iv. t. 78. — This species weighs about three pounds; length near two feet and a half. Bill black, three inches long, and slender; hides hazel. The head and upper part of the neck before cinereous; the rest of the neck, running up behind almost to the head, is marked with longitudinal dusky and white lines ; on the throat is a patch of chesnut-red; the upper part of the body, wings, and tail dusky; the feathers of the back and scapulars slightly margined with brown'; the under parts of the body white; the sides under the wings and thighs streaked with dusky; vent brown; legs dusky on the outside, lighter within. The bird from which this description is taken was killed at Hastings in Sussex, in the %rinter of 1795, at which time a great many were seen on that coast. This, like others of the genus, seems subject to some va- riety, as we are informed some have the head and chin dotted with brown,_and the$