WHITE-BILLED GEEAT NOETHEEN DIVEE.
COLYMBUS ADAM SI, G. R. Gray.
Colymbus adamsi, G. R. Gray, P. Z. S. 1859, p. 167; Yarr.
ed. 4, iv. p. 99, & Pref. to vol. iii. p. x; Collett,
Ibis, 1894, p. 269; Dresser, Suppl. p. 413.
Though a specimen of a large Diver with a white
bill killed at Pakefield on the Suffolk coast was
suspected to belong to the then (1859) recently
described Colymbus adamsi, both the identification of
the specimen and the validity of the species have been
questioned until a recent date. Professor Collett's
paper on C. adamsi has now set the main point at rest,
for he has not only proved the species to be distinct
from C. glacialis, but has also shown, by the examination
of a number of specimens, that the White-billed Great
Northern Diver is not uncommon on the coast of
Norway between October and December. It probably
occurs over a considerable area in the Arctic Regions,
whence moving southwards in autumn it is found both
in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
A second British-killed specimen is preserved in the
Museum at Newcastle-on-Tyne, which, according to
Hancock, was shot on the coast of Northumberland.
[O. 8.]