THE LOON. 



^TTn all the lakes of the fur 

 countries, says Nuttall, these 

 birds abound, where, as well as 

 o J I in the interior of the most 

 northern of the states, and 

 probably in the inland seas of the St. 

 Lawrence, along the whole Canadian 

 line, they pass the period of reproduc- 

 tion. This species is the most com- 

 mon of its tribe in the United States 

 and is a general inhabitant of cold 

 and temperate climates throughout the 

 whole northern hemisphere. They 

 have been known to breed as far south 

 as the Fame Isles, alung with the 

 Eider Ducks, with which they also as- 

 sociate on the shores of Labrador. In 

 the United States from the severity of 

 the winters, the young and even 

 occasionally the old, are seen to mi- 

 grate nearly, if not quite, to the estu- 

 ary of the Mississippi. 



Cautious, vigilant, and fond of the 

 security attending upon solitude, the 

 Loon generally selects, with his mate, 

 some lonely islet, on the borders of a 

 retired lake far from the haunts of men, 

 where, on the ground, near the \vater, 

 they build a rude and grassy nest. 

 The Loons are, from the nature of 

 their food, which consists almost 

 wholly of fish, utterly rank and uned- 

 ible, though in New England the fol- 

 lowing receipt is given for cooking 

 one of the birds: Having dressed your 

 Loon, stuff it with an iron wedge, 

 then bake or boil. When you can 

 stick a fork into the wedge the bird is 

 ready for the table. 



It is chiefly remarkable for the 

 quickness wnth which it can dive, 

 manv observers maintaining that it 

 can dodge a bullet or shot by diving 

 at the flash of the gun. Mr. W. H. 

 Porteous states that he once watched 

 a man for more than an hour fire 

 repeatedly at a Loon on a pond in 

 Maine, the bird being frozen in by 

 thin ice, a small circular space being 



mg, although 



range 



kept open by its movements. The ice 

 was not strong enough to sustain the 

 man and the open space not large 

 enough to enable the bird to swim and 

 rise, as a Loon cannot rise in flight 

 from a stationary position in the water. 

 The Loon dodged every shot, by div- 

 within easy gunshot 

 from the shore. It was not 

 killed until the next morning, when 

 the ice had become strong enough to 

 permit the man to go close up to the 

 open space and shoot when the Loon 

 came to the surface. " Under the 

 circumstances," adds Mr. Porteous, " I 

 think the man ought to have been 

 shot instead of the Loon." 



"In the fall," says Thoreau, "the 

 Loon came, as usual, to moult and 

 bathe in the pond, making the woods 

 ring with his wild laughter before I 

 had risen. At rumor of his arrival all 

 the mill-dam sportsmen are on the 

 alert, in gigs and on foot, two by two 

 and three by three, with patent rifles 

 and conical balls and spy glasses. 

 They come rustling through the woods 

 like autumn leaves, at least ten men 

 to one loon. Some station themselves 

 on this side of the pond, some on that 

 for the poor bird cannot be omnipres- 

 ent; if he dive here he must come up 

 there. But now the kind October 

 wind raises, rustling the surface of 

 the water, so that no loon can be heard 

 or seen. The waves generously rise 

 and dash angrily, taking sides with all 

 waterfowl, and our sportsman must 

 beat a retreat to town and shop and 

 unfinished jobs. But they were too 

 often successful. 



As I was paddling along the north 

 shore one very calm October afternoon, 

 for such days especially they settle on 

 the lakes, like the milkweed down, 

 a Loon, suddenly sailing out from the 

 shore toward the middle a few rods in 

 front of me, set up his wild laugh and 

 betrayed himself. I pursued with a 



59 



