LOON, BLACK-THROATED 



One of the most romantic of birds, the Hermit of our 

 northern lakes, and so exceedingly shy that it is rarely 

 seen except at a distance. 



Flagg. a Year With the Birds.^^ 



Far out at sea in winter .... I have often heard 

 on a fine calm morning the sad and wolfish call of the 

 solitary loon, which hke a dismal echo seems slowly to 

 invade the ear and, rising as'^ it proceeds, dies away in 

 the air. This boding sound to the mariner, supposed to 

 be indicative of a storm, may be heard sometimes for two 

 or three miles, when the bird itself is invisible or reduced 

 almost to a speck in the distance. The aborigines, 

 almost as superstitious as sailors, dislike to hear the cry 

 of the loon, considering the bird, from its shy and extra- 

 ordinary habits as a sort of supernatural being. By the 

 Norwegians it is with more appearance of reason supposed 



to portend rain. 



NuttalFs Ornithology, 



26 



" He has also another rather soft and pleasing utterance, 

 sounding Hke who-who-who-who, the syllables being so 

 rapidly pronounced as to sound almost like a shake of 

 the voice— a sort of weird laughter." To this Longfellow 

 refers in his ''Birds of Passage." 



The loon that laughs and flies 



Down to those reflected skies. 



89 



