This card gave us a "Diver", and that is probably the first word we think of when we think of submarines, as "Dive!" seems to be all these craft do in movies and on television. And yet for the most part a real submarine floats along just beneath the surface, it only dives to elude a pursuer or a torpedo.
The Great Northern Diver is also known as The Common Loon. It is the largest member of the "Loon" family, and can be seen as either a breeding adult, when it is brightly coloured to its top plumage, with shades of green, purple and blue - or as a non breeding adult, when it is only brown. However, it seems to only breed in North America and Canada, plus Greenland and Iceland, coming to the United Kingdom purely as a winter visitor - though there are records of them having bred in Scotland in years gone by.
Now we have a home page for this set, with the first series, which was featured as our Card of the Day for the 12th of May, 2025 - so this page will only deal with our second series.
They first appear in our original Ogden`s reference book, RB.15, first published in 1949, as :
- 100 BRITISH BIRDS (1905-1908). Fronts lithographed in colour. Backs in green, with descriptive text. Home issue.
48. "Second Series". Numbered 51-100 on fronts. Backs off-white, matt. Issued 1908.
In our original World Tobacco Issues Index, it appears under section 4 of the Ogdens listings, for sets described as being "Issues with I.T.C. Clause. All issued in U.K. Small size 67 x 36 m/m, unless stated." - and sub-section 4.A, for "cards issued between 1903 and 1917" , described as :
- BRITISH BIRDS. Sm. Nd. See H.229 ... O/2-95
2. "Second Series". Nd 51-100
In our updated version of the World Tobacco Issues Index, it remains in section 4.A, and the description reads :
- BRITISH BIRDS. Sm. Nd. See H.229 ... O100-414
2. "Second Series". Nd 51-100 (50)