lO JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Were These Loons Racing? 



By Frank A. Brown, Beverly, Mass. 



This past summer, late in August, while on an idle bird trip in 

 the deepest of the Washington County, Maine, forests, by canoe and 

 portage we reached a lake where I became the interested observer 

 of something I had read of some years before in one of Dr. Long's 

 books, but hardly expected to see personally. We were well into a 

 lonely part of the country, having come from big Nickatous Lake, 

 by paddle and portage, much of the latter included, by way of Big 

 and Little Machias Lake, into Big Sabeo, as it is called. It was 

 rainy and a strong half gale was blowing up the lake as we entered 

 from the dead water above at about five in the afternoon. The in- 

 creasing white caps and the tree-tops bending to the blast warned 

 us to keep under the lee shore and not attempt the crossing of the 

 lake that night, so we pitched our little shelter tent in an opening 

 among some birches and poplars, almost out of sight of the lake, 

 and hauled our canoes out among the abundant blueberry bushes. 

 After a night of rain and wind, we found it still misty and showery 

 in the morning, hut ])y 7 o'clock it cleared sufficiently for us to see 

 well across the lake. Well under the opposite shore from where we 

 were, across a half mile of water, for we were in a small bay, we 

 saw some eight or nine Loons which were calling incessantly, and 

 were apparently very uneasy. 



Our camp and canoes were well hidden, so we were sure our 

 own presence had not alarmed them. Through the glasses, we 

 noted them swimming in circles, and now and then one standing up 

 on its tail and flapping its wings, then swimming round excitedly, 

 and all talking as if it were a ladies' sewing circle. After a time, 

 they swam quickly up in one direction several hundred feet, and 

 then back again, then seemed to back up and scatter along in a 

 string, with the exception of two. who, with a good deal of calling, 

 suddenly started side by side, feet and wings going at utmost speed, 

 and water flying, for perhaps half a mile or more, amid the excited 

 cries of the rest. After that they all gathered again and apparentl}^ 



