THE WILDERNESS IN JUNE 269 



Gradually he works toward me into shallow 

 water and soon Is diving for fish, for he, too, Is 

 a lover of these delicately-flavored trout. Be- 

 tween his divings, raising himself well out of 

 water, he announces his success in weird laugh- 

 ter with a great flourish of his long wings. Then 

 he, too, disappears around the bend, for his nest 

 is in the Pocket, the little bag-shaped bay at the 

 southwest end of the lake. So close to the water 

 that the nesting bird can slip into it without the 

 necessity of walking at all. Is a loose pile of 

 sticks and rushes In which are deposited the 

 two large lead-colored eggs. 



This bird is ver}^ well adapted to a life on the 

 water, but is ill suited for land dwelling, as its 

 legs are so far back (at the end of the body in 

 fact), that when trying to walk it overbalances 

 in a very awkward manner. But on the water 

 it is a veritable master; for not only can it stay 

 under for what seems an incredible length of 

 time for an air-breathing creature, but so great 

 are Its natatorial powers that the distance 

 traversed during one of its submarine excur- 

 sions is little short of marvelous. No less strik- 

 ing is the celerity which it displays in getting 

 under. It Is a well-knowTi fact among hunters 

 that in the old days of muzzle-loading guns the 

 chances of killing a Loon, unless he could be 

 taken unawares, were very small. So keen of 

 eye was he, and so quick of movement, that in 

 the instant between the flash of the cap and the 

 arrival of the bullet the bird was able to get 

 safely below the surface, and the bullet harm- 

 lessly hit the water where he had been sitting. 



