50 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



LOON {Gavia immer). 



Summer. 



Fall. 



Length.- — ^ Very variable, ranging from 28 to 36 inches. 



Adult in Spring. — Mantle black, spotted with white; head and neck 

 black, with green and purple reflections; neck with three bands of 

 white stripes; under parts white; bill and feet black; iris red. 



Adult and Young in Fall. — Bill yellowish or bluish white, blackening 

 above and toward tip; iris brown; legs and feet brownish or yellowish, 

 never black; top of head and hind neck dull brownish black; other 

 upper parts dark grayish brown, mottled a little, but with no white 

 spots; sides of head and neck more or less mottled with ashy and dusky ; 

 chin, throat, fore neck and other under parts white. 



Field Marks. — The size of a Goose. The black and white spotted adult 

 is unmistakable in spring. The fall birds resemble the fall Red-throated 

 Loon, but are nuxch larger, have a bill much thicker at base, yellowish, 

 with much of the tip black, while the Red-throated Loon has a slender, 

 lighter colored bill, more white on cheeks and a bluish gray cast to the 

 top of head and back of neck, where the Loon is brownish black. 



Notes. — Loud maniacal laughing cries. 



Nest. — A slight depression in groimd close to water or an old muskrat house. 



Eggs. — Two, about 3.50 by 2.2.5, elongated and pointed, olive drab, or 

 dark olive brown, thinly spotted with dark brown and blackish. 



Season. — Abundant transient coastwise; September to June; less common 

 in the interior; a few summer here. 



Range. — Northern part of northern hemisphere. Breeds in America from 

 arctic coast and islands south to northern California, northern New 

 York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts (rarely) and Nova Scotia; 

 winters from southern British Columbia and southern New England 

 to Lower California, Gulf coast and Florida. 



