colour during winter, apparently confirming the opinion that
having once acquired a dark-coloured throat they do not
afterwards lose it at any season; M. Temminek, in the
4th part of his Manual, states it as now ascertained that the
Divers have a double moult in the year; and Mr. Hey-
sham’s specimen, as well : as others, have been found to, barin'
moult in the spring.. This is certainly in favour of a temporary
assumption of colour. Mr. Selby mentions that, of
thnnumbers which visit our shores in winter, adult specimens
might perhaps fie ^estimated at not more than one x'in fiftyiv
this seems a very large proportion of young birds, when we
consider that these Divers breed but once, in a summer, and.
seldom bring up more than twO' young birds ; sometimes1 only
one. Mr. Proctor ■ saw flocks 'of Divers when ’ at Iceland,'- in
the middle of summer, but not. one of. them had a white
throat, nor can I find any record of the capture of Divers
with a white throat in summer; except ■ very late; in :that
season in Norway, and these were two small and young5 bigds
of the year, only two or three months old. The few Divers
obtained with dark-coloured throats77 in-winter, compared
the number of those taken having-white thrOats, seem to
make the former rather, the exception than the rule, and I
have known a specimen- of our common Tern, killed in
December, with a black head, thus, perhaps- from some
morbid cause, carrying the strongest. mark of its breeding-
plumage through the winter, p
Rluli
T H E COMMON GUILLEMOT,
W lS i o t iK ,* OU T iNKERSHÈRÉ;'’^
l'tia tràüè, Foolish Guillemot,
galg , ***
„ ,, \ ' Foolish ,,
, , , , ,
,, troi le, Foolish ,,
,, minor, TLêSS^'*- ^
,, irai le, Fwpld&hr) ,,
, , , , G u il lem o t à c a p u c h o n ,
F inn. Rm..Zpp^ vol. ii. p. 160.
„ „ ,, „ 162.
B jewick, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. UJ8* r
„ „ „ 190.
FLEM. Brit. Au. p. 134.
Brit*: Qrnith. vol. ii. p. 420.
J enyns, Brit. Vert. p. 258.
Gould, Birds of Europe, pt. ix.
Temm. Mau. d’Ornith. vol. ii. p. 921.
Uma. Generic Characters. — Bill of moderate length, strong, - straight,