306 THE LOON. 



as to sound almost like a shake of the voice — a sort of weird 

 laughter. 



Though generally dispersed over the United States in 

 winter, the Great Northern Diver breeds, for the most part, 

 beyond our limits, except in mountainous regions, rearing 

 their precocious young, even up to 70°. 



The length of this species is 2^-3 feet. Its food is mostly 

 small fishes. 



The Red-throated Diver {Coly?Jibus septejitrionalis), with 

 habits and habitat similar to the former, is much smaller, 

 26 inches long and 43 in extent of wing; and it differs no- 

 ticeably in color. It is ''blackish; below, white, dark 

 along the sides and on the vent and crissum; most of the 

 head and fore-neck, bluish-gray, the throat with a large 

 chest7iut patch, hind neck sharply streaked with white on a 

 blackish ground; bill black. The young have not these 

 marks on the head and neck, but a profusion of small, sharp, 

 circular or oval white spots on the back." 



This species is said to be abundant on the Bay of Fundy. 

 Another species called the Black-throated Diver is found to 

 the northwest of our continent. 



These Loons are also the Loons of the Old World, the 

 birds having a circumpolar distribution. They are closely 

 allied to the Grebes, differing from them, as to structure, 

 principally in their completely webbed feet. 



The peculiarities of the skeleton of a Loon, including the 

 greatly prolonged breast-bone, the long, narrow pelvic bone 

 with its elevated ridge, to receive the great muscles of the 

 leg used in swimming, and the greatly prolonged process at 

 the knee-joint, to strengthen the leg as the bird kicks up to- 

 ward the surface of the water in the act of diving, deserve 

 the special attention of the ornithologist and anatomist. 



