lO 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



LOONS 



Order Pygopodcs; suborder Ccpplii: family Gaviidcc 



S a family the Loons of the present seem to be very much the same kind of 

 birds as were those of which we have fossil remains in strata representing 

 what the geologists call the Miocene Epoch of the Tertiary Period. They 

 are birds of considerable size, and are famous especially for their skill and 

 swiftness in swimming and diving and for their weird and unearthly cries. 

 Their quickness in diving to escape danger is truly astonishing, and has, nat- 

 urally enough, furnished occasion for frequent exaggeration, also excuses for 

 much bad shooting by gunners who assert that they held true, but the Loon 

 " dodged the shot." They have a peculiar faculty of sinking gradually in 

 the water without apparent effort and with little or no rippling of the surface 

 of the water. 



Sumn 



Winter 



Drawing by R, I. Braslicr 



LOON 1 b nac. size 

 A clumsy, awkward traveler upon land, but almost unexcelled as a dive." 



Loons take wing with considerable difficulty, but once in the air their flight is swift 

 and usually in a straight line. At all times the sexes present the same general appearance. 

 Their prevailing colors are blackish or grayish above, with the under parts whitish ; in summer 

 the darker parts become speckled with white. These markings do not appear in the young 

 nor in the winter plumage of the adults; the very young are covered with a sooty grayish 

 down, changing to white on the lower abdomen. The head is never crested, but both head 

 and neck are velvety. The plumage of the body is hard and compact. The wings are 

 pointed, short, and rather narrow. The eighteen or twenty tail feathers are short and stiff. 

 The hind toe is small and the front toes are fully webbed. The bill is stout, straight, narrow, 

 sharp-pointed, and sharp-edged; it is so constructed that it serves as a spear for catching 

 and holding the slippery fish which are the bird's chief diet. 



Though related to the Auks, which show a highly developed gregarious instinct, the 

 Loons are essentially solitan,^ birds, and commonly are found singly or in pairs. The for- 

 mation of ice in their natural habitats, however, at times forces a considerable number of 

 individuals to occupy the same comparatively small stretches of open water. 



The distribution of the Loons is circumpolar, and the single genus includes five species. 

 In the breeding period they occur generally in the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, 

 and frequently some distance north of the Arctic Circle; in winter they scatter southward 



