BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 53 



safely do so. Audubon satisfied himself that on its breeding 

 grounds it was accustomed to spend the night on shore. On 

 an island off the coast of British Columbia, where there was 

 no one to trouble the birds, I once saw, just at nightfall, a pair 

 of Loons resting flat on their breasts at the end of a long 

 sandy point. Cripples instinctively seek the shore when 

 sorely wounded, but on our coast a Loon must keep well off 

 shore to insure its safety, and probably few but cripples ever 

 land on shores frequented by man. 



The Loon's nest is usually a mere hollow in the bog or 

 shore near the water's edge on some island in a lake or pond. 

 Sometimes the nest is lined with grasses and bits of turf ; more 

 rarely it is a mere depression on the top of a muskrat's house, 

 and more rarely still it is placed on the shore of the lake or on 

 some debouching stream. Where the birds are not much dis- 

 turbed, and where food is plentiful, two or three pairs some- 

 times nest on the same island. No doubt there was a time 

 when nearly every northern pond of more than a few acres 

 contained its pair of Loons in the breeding season, and this is 

 true to-day of ponds in parts of some Canadian Provinces. 

 The nest is usually so near the margin that the bird can 

 spring directly into the water, but sometimes in summer the 

 water recedes until the nest is left some distance inland. 



The Loon is a clumsy, aw'kward traveller upon land, where 

 when hurried, it flounders forward, using both wings and feet. 

 Audubon, however, says that his son, J. W. Audubon, winged 

 a Loon which ran about one hundred yards and reached the 

 water before it was overtaken. Its usual method of taking to 

 the water from its nest is by plunging forward and sliding on 

 its breast. It cannot rise from the land, hence the necessity 

 of having the nest at the w^ater's edge. 



When the yoimg are hatched the mother carries them 

 about on her back a few days (Boardman), after which they 

 remain afloat much of the time until they are fully grown. If 

 food becomes scarce in their native pond they sometimes leave 

 it and travel overland to another. Dr. Hatch says that early 

 in the morning the parents and the well-grown young run 

 races on the lake, using their broad paddles for propulsion 



