Widmann — A Preliminary Catalog of the Birds of Missouri. 23 



and winters along the Gulf of Mexico and in Lower Cali- 

 fornia ; also along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts south- 

 ward. 



During their migrations Loons are sometimes found on our 

 larger lakes and rivers in every part of the state from the first 

 week of April to the first of May, and from October 20 to Novem- 

 ber 20, but this being the height of the duck-hunting season, 

 they cannot stay long anywhere and pass on rapidly. 



9. [Gavia arctica (Linn.). Black-throated Loon.] 



Urinator arcticus. Colymbus arcticus. Arctic Loon. Arctic Diver. 



Geog. Dist. — Northern part of northern hemisphere. Breeds 

 in arctic regions and migrates south in winter to northern United 

 States east of the Rocky Mountains, but apparently extremely 

 rare everywhere on this continent. Students should carefully 

 examine all loons in winter dress, in which they resemble each 

 other extremely. Size is too variable in this family to be a dis- 

 tinguishing feature. Red-throated Loons may easily be separ- 

 ated by the tarsus being longer than the middle toe with claw, 

 but the Common and Black-throated Loons, so different in their 

 beautiful summer dress, can only be told apart by exact mea- 

 surement of the distance from the base of the culmen to the 

 anterior point of the loral feathers, which is greater than the 

 distance from the latter point to the anterior border of the nos- 

 trils in the Common Loon, and not greater in the Black-throated 

 Loon. 



11, Gavia LUMME (Gunn.). Red-throated Loon. 



Urinator lumme. Colymbus septentrionalis. 



Geog. Dist. — Northern part of northern hemisphere. Breeds 

 from New Brunswick and New Foundland to Greenland and 

 thi'ough the arctic regions to Alaska. In winter south to United 

 States, coastwise to Florida and southern Cahfornia and in the 

 interior chiefly on the Great Lakes and larger rivers. 



Two specimens in winter dress taken November 3, 1902, near 

 New Haven, Mo., are in the collection of Mr. Chas. Eimbeck. 

 It has been taken twice on the Missouri near Omaha in 

 spring and fall (April 6, 1897 and September 28, 1894) and Mr. 

 W. E. Praeger writes me that there is a mounted specimen in 

 Keokuk said to have been shot on the Des Moines River near 

 Ottumwa, la. 



