GREAT K0RTHER:N" DIVER; LOOK 



COLYMBUS TOEQUATTIS. 



npHE loon is not a singer, but his calls and shoutings 

 exhibit so great a variety of vocal qualities that 

 we must consider him a member of Nature's chorus. 



In the summer of 1887, I spent a few weeks on the 

 borders of Trout Lake, St. Lawrence County, New York. 

 This beautiful little island-dotted lake, some three miles 

 long, has been inhabited for years by three or four pairs 

 of loons. There they lay their eggs and rear their young, 

 and there I found a good opportunity to study them. On 

 one occasion a small party of us discovered a nest. When 

 we were yet a good way off, the wary sitter slid from 

 sight into the water, darted along beneath our boat, and 

 was far out into the lake before she came to the surface. 

 The nest, simply a little cavity in dry muck, was on 

 the ruins of an old musk-rat house, not more than 

 eight or ten inches above the water. There were two 

 very dark eggs in it, — never more than two are found in 

 the nest of the loon, — nearly as large as those of a goose. 



The time of sitting, as I was informed, is four weeks. 

 Wilson says of the loons that "they light upon their 

 nests ; " but a careful observer, who had several times 

 seen the female make her way from the water to her 

 nest, told me that they shove themselves to it on their 



