AMONG THE WaATER-FOWL 
breakfast. Like as not some greenhorn gunner will 
row after them; but I never saw a Loon thus 
caught. It may let him approach nearly within 
gunshot, when it will quietly sink out of sight, and 
after some moments rise quite a distance off. After 
a few repetitions of this it will dive, to be seen 
no more. 
If there is a strong wind, and the sea or lake 1s 
rough, I have found it not so dithcult to approach 
them, especially in a sail-boat. Well do I re- 
member, sailing in a catboat on Lake Assowompsett 
one cloudy, blustering November day when the 
chop was caectieninioe how we suddenly almost ran 
down a Red-throated Loon. The bird ‘was, so 
startled that it lost its presence of mind, and, 
instead of diving, flew. The boat was going 
directly before the wind, so the Loon had to 
rise directly toward the boat, almost striking 
the sail, and going so low over the deck that the 
possibility was suggested of seizing one of the 
dangling legs. 
Usually, though, a Loon can seldom be forced 
to fly, even hen it has very limited space for 
diving. Here is a typical instance to the point. 
One perfectly calm day in October a friend and 
myself noticed a large Loon out on Lake Nippe- 
nickett, and we decided to give it a chase, and see 
how it would act. We soon found that its main 
plan was to keep out in the widest part of the lake 
and avoid being driven in to the shore. It varied 
its tactics, too, apparently with the direct intention 
of deceiving us. Sometimes, after diving, it would 
emerge straight beyond us, sometimes off to one 
42 
