14 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



the water near the edge of the lake. With the first gleam 

 of dawn they were awake and their weird cries were echo- 

 ing far and near. Soon the father bird raised himself 

 straight np in the water facing the rising sun and began 

 flapping his wings. Immediately his wife joined in his 

 weird morning dance and the great diver, seeing his par- 

 ents go through this ceremony, imitated them as best he 

 could. 



This was the regular morning ceremony with which 

 they greeted the rising sun, and is an interesting charac- 

 teristic of the loon. This ceremony over, the father de- 

 parted to his feeding ground at the far end of the lake and 

 the mother led the great diver to the shallow water near 

 the nest. 



One day soon after the diver had left the nest a man 

 chanced to see him and his mother as they floated on the 

 bosom of the lake. They were near the nest and the 

 man pushed his canoe into the water so as to cut them off 

 from the body of the lake. When the mother saw the man 

 in his boat she gave a peculiar cry which the diver under- 

 stood to be a danger cry. He promptly disappeared be- 

 neath the water and dived through the rushes away from 

 the boat. His mother almost immediately dived and 

 coming up a few yards on the other side of the boat, 

 flapped the water with her wings and feet as loudly as 

 possible to attract the man's attention. But the man knew 

 something of birds and was not to be deceived by the 

 mother; so keeping a keen eye on the water among the 

 rushes he saw the baby loon rise to the surface, where he 

 remained perfectly still. With two or three strokes of the 

 paddle the boat glided toward the spot where he was hid- 

 den. The mother again uttered her warning cry and the 



