brooks: birds from east Siberia and arctic Alaska. 367 

 Gavia pacifica (Lawrence). 



PACIFIC LOON. 



This is the most abundant of the loons at Demarcation Point where 

 it was first noted on June 3; a pair in a pond, and five flying east. 



As other writers have remarked this bird delights in making the 

 most hideous noises imaginable while on the water. On still calm 

 nights one often hears a heart rending wailing on the distant waste 

 of tundra, as of a child in agony. Another sound which, though I 

 heard it many times, never failed to startle me; a bird would often 

 be concealed in the aquatic vegetation along the margin of a pond, 

 and when within a few feet of the bird it would utter a piercing shriek, 

 just as it was diving under water. These weird sounds had a great 

 efi'ect on the expedition's cook who occasionally took short excursions 

 after ducks for the table. One day he returned in a state of consider- 

 able agitation with the report that far back on the tundra he had 

 heard the groans of a dying man but could find no one. Thereafter 

 his peregrinations from the kitchen seldom extended beyond the 

 wood pile. 



Many of the birds are mated on arriving at Demarcation Point 

 and they soon select a pond suitable for nesting about which one or 

 both of the birds can generally be found at any hour. The size of 

 the pond seems to be immaterial provided there is suflticient space 

 for taking wing. A Red-throated Loon requires less space than a. 

 Pacific Loon to leaVe the water. 



The nest of the Pacific Loon is composed of a pile of roots and 

 stems of aquatic vegetation placed in a patch of water weeds that 

 grow in abundance about the margins of many of the ponds. The 

 whole afl^air is very wet and soggy. 



Until the surrounding vegetation has grown to a considerable height 

 the black and white back of the brooding bird is very conspicuous, 

 though on one's approach she lies very flat and extends the head and 

 neck straight out over the water. When disturbed, the bird slides 

 from the nest and disappearing under the water does not come to the 

 surface until the cover of some grass has been reached some fifty 

 yards distant, from which she quietly watches the intruder. 



Fresh eggs were taken July 4, and eggs slightly incubated on July 

 G and 7. 



Specimens of this species were taken in Camden Bay, August, 1913,. 

 and Providence Bay, E. Siberia, June 18, 1913. 



We saw no evidence of G. arctica. 



