12 NOTES ON THE 



glossy-white, with a narrow band of dusky feathers crossing 

 the lower part of the abdomen, and marked with small white 

 spots; lower tail coverts, blackish-brown, tipped with white; 

 bill, black, compressed, strong and tapering; outline of upper 

 mandible, nearly straight, very slightly curved; the lower 

 mandible has a groove underneath running from the junction 

 of the crora towards the point; the tail consists of twenty 

 feathers. 



Length, 30; wing, 14; tarsus, 3; bill, 3; height at base, 1. 



Habitat, north portion of Northern Hemisphere. 



Though tish and frogs are preferably their food, they do 

 nicely without them when supplied with aquatic vegetation. If 

 undisturbed by being fired at, they will visit the same localities 

 daily during the season for their food. 



Note. This interesting bird has increased in relative num- 

 bers on our larger lakes of late years, nothwithstanding the 

 greater number of persons who visit them, and on which boys 

 and sportsmen (?) are tacitly allowed to shoot nt them to their 

 heart's content, as they rarely hit them. I had supposed that 

 unless the firing was arrested, they would desert these favorite 

 resorts, like White Bear, Waseca, and Minnetonka. Mr. Wil- 

 liam. Howling and Son of East Minneapolis presented me with 

 the most beautiful and perfect specimen of Loon I have ever 

 seen a few years ago, except that the tip of the bill is hooked. 

 There are no indications of it having been produced by injury, 

 but the flexion downward is smooth and perfectly turned. 

 Query: — Is it a case of evolution avaunt? 



IRINATOR ARCTICUS (L.). (9.) 



BLACK-THROATED LOON. 



In the local observations of this exceedingly rarely seen 

 Loon, we have an instance of the folly of making positive 

 declarations of the limitations of the habitat of species before 

 the fullest attainments from observations have been reached. 

 The extremely pernicious practice of ambitious writers in 

 anticipating the final testimonies of science in every depart- 

 ment of investigation, has led to evils enough to lead to its 

 abandonment long ago, but it is probable that the world will 

 have to wait for the Millennium before the truth can be waited 

 for till all the facts are in, and then, we devoutly hope the said 

 writers will be better employed. The conservative A. O. U. 

 have magnanimously allowed the Black-throated Loon to visit 

 the Northern United States in winter. From the winter of 

 1858 till that of 1869, eleven years, this very northern bird 

 came indisputably within the range of my field glass in five of 

 them, but I found it impossible to secure one for the reason 



