BIRDS FOUND NEAR SHORE OR IN BAYS 29 



they seem to be standing on their heads and paddling 

 their feet in the air. They soon bjcome expert swim- 

 mers and divers. Yet under the water as on it, lurk 

 the Loon's encfnies. The large pickerel are fond of 



catching him by the feet, and great 

 wait for a delicious piece of Loon ^ 

 meat. If he floats serenely on the 

 surface, hawks and gulls are ever 

 ready to swoop down upon 

 him. Fortunate it is for the 

 poor mother that she has 

 but two to guard. 



The peculiar cry of the 

 Loon has been 

 well described 

 by ]Mr. J. H 



mud-turtles 



^ ■ 7. Look. 



'^5^^. " The young loons are taken into the tvater.^^ 



Lan;4ille : ** Beginning on the fifth note of the scale, 

 the voice slides through the eighth to the third of 

 the scale above in loud, clear, sonorous tones, which 

 on a dismal evening before a thunderstorm — the light- 

 ning already playing along the inky sky — arc anything 

 but nuisical. lie has also another rather soft and pleas- 

 ing utterance, sounding like ivho-ivlio-wJio-who, the syl- 

 lables being so ra[)idly pronounced as to sound almost 

 like a shake of the voice — a sort of weird laughter. 



