516 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



betrayed its wandering habit, and every night was found to 

 have waddled to some hiding place, where it seemed to 

 prefer hunger to the loss of liberty, and never could be 

 restrained from exercising its instinct to move onwards to 

 some secure or more suitable asylum. 



Far out at sea in winter, and in the great western lakes, 

 particularly Huron and Michigan in summer, I have often 

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

 the solitary loon, which like a dismal echo seems slowly to 

 invade the ear, and rising as it proceeds, dies away in the air. 

 This boding sound to mariners, 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, nearly as supersti* 

 tious as sailors, dislike to hear the cry of the Loon, con- 

 sidering the bird from its shy and extraordinary habits as a 

 sort of supernatural being. By the Norwegians its long 

 drawn howl, is, with more appearance of reason, supposed 

 to portend rain. Judging however from the young bird, 

 already mentioned, this expression, like that of other fowls, 

 indicated nothing beyond the humble wants or social com- 

 munication of the species. 



The flesh of the Loon is dark, tough, and unpalatable, 

 yet the young birds are frequently seen in the markets of 

 New York and Boston, and are therefore no doubt some- 

 times eaten. Some of the Russian Tartars on the Ob and 

 the Irtisch tan the breasts of this and other water fowlj 

 preserving the down upon them, and sewing them together, 

 sell them for garments, and caps. The Greenlanders, as 

 well as the aborigines round Hudson's Bay, and on the 

 banks of the Columbia river, employ their skins as articles 

 of dress or of decoration ; and the Indians of the Missouri 

 and Mississippi also often ornament the sacred calumet with 

 the brilliant neck feathers of this and other species. 



