The Loon 
sings part of a north-country ballad in 
which the same word occurs : 
King Stephen was a worthy peer, 
His breeches cost him but a crown ; 
He held them sixpence all too dear, 
With that he called the tailor lown.1 
The name of Loon or Loom isa popular 
appellation which includes three distinct 
families of water-birds, all remarkable for 
their clumsy gait on land. Whether this 
name was applied to them after it had 
first been in use as an uncomplimentary 
epithet for a man, or was originally their 
own common designation which came 
eventually to aquire a human application, 
remains in doubt. More probably the 
bird was first owner, and the word may 
belong to the group of bird-names like 
goose, snipe, kite, hawk and others which 
have become disparaging epithets for 
human subjects. In Lincolnshire the 
word is in use as the common name of 
the Great Crested Grebe. Though now 
lit, ili, 82. 
D3 
