514 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



bergen, Greenland, Iceland, and Hudson's Bay. It abounds 

 in all the lakes of the fur countries, where, as well as in the 

 interior of the most northern of the States, and probably in 

 the inland seas of the St. Lawrence along the whole Cana- 

 dian line, they pass the period of reproduction. They have 

 been known to breed as far south as the Farn Isles on the 

 coast of Northumberland along \\^l1 the Eider Ducks, with 

 which they also associate on the shores of Labrador.* In 

 the Hebrides they are common in the summer season, 

 as well as in Norway, Sweden and Russia, from all which 

 countries they seldom migrate to any considerable distance, 

 being only accidental passengers on the coasts of the Ocean ; 

 the young only are seen, and rarely, on the lakes of 

 Germany, France and Switzerland, but in those regions the 

 old are unknown. In the United States, from the superior 

 severity of the winters, the young, and even occasionally the 

 old, are seen to migrate nearly if not quite to the estuary of 

 the Mississippi. 



The Loon, cautious, vigilant, and fond of the security at- 

 tending upon solitude, generally selects with his mate, some 

 lonely islet, or the borders of a retired lake far from the 

 haunts of men, here on the ground, contiguous to the water, 

 they construct their rude and grassy nest. About the 11th 

 of June, through the kindness of Doctor T. W. Harris, I 

 received 3 eggs, which had been taken from the nest of a 

 Loon, made in a hummock, or elevated grassy hillock, at 

 Sebago pond, in New Hampshire. These were about the 

 size of the eggs of a goose, of a dark smoky olive, coarsely 

 blotched nearly all over with umber brown spots. The 

 males, after the period of incubation, secede from their 

 mates, and associate by themselves in the bays and estu- 

 ries near to the sea. They soon after moult, and become so 



* Audubon, 



