52 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Buzzards Bay to its head, where, on the way to Massachusetts 

 Bay, they cross the neck of Cape Cod at the narrowest point 

 near the mainland, where the Cape Cod canal is now^ (1910) in 

 process of construction. Tobey and Mashnee Islands lie on 

 either side of the channel leading from Buzzards Bay into 

 Manomet Bay. When the wind blows from the southwest 

 the Loons pass up the strait between these islands at morning 

 and at night, flying comparatively low. When the wind 

 blows from any other quarter they fly high. Mackay says 

 that years ago he has seen three tiers, of ten or a dozen boats 

 each, stretched across this passage, and that sometimes on a 

 "good southwest morning" fifty or sixty Loons were killed, 

 and as many more wounded, which could not be recovered. 

 He states that he is informed that this sport is kept up to the 

 present day (1892).^ Doubtless fewer Loons are killed there 

 now. The spring shooting of Loons should be prohibited by 

 law. Nothing can be more destructive than shooting at that 

 time, when the birds are paired and headed for their breeding 

 grounds. 



Of all the wild creatures which still persist in the land, 

 despite settlement and civilization, the Loon seems best to 

 typify the untamed savagery of the wilderness. Its wolflike 

 cry is the wildest sound now heard in Massachusetts, where 

 nature has long been subdued by the rifle, axe and plow. 

 Sometimes at sea, when I have heard the call of the Loon 

 from afar, and seen its white breast flash from the crest of a 

 distant wave, I have imagined it the signal and call for help 

 of some strong swimmer, battling with the waves. 



It is generally believed that in migration at least the Loon 

 passes the night upon the sea or the bosom of some lake or 

 river. The Gulls, Auks, Puffins and Cormorants, which live 

 upon the sea, usually alight upon the high shores of some 

 rocky island or on some lonely sand bar at night, but the Loon 

 is often seen at sea when night falls, and its cries are heard 

 by the sailors during the hours of darkness. Notwithstand- 

 ing the general belief that it normally sleeps on the water. I 

 believe that it prefers to rest on shore at night, when it can 



» Mackay, George H.: Auk, 1892, p. 292. 



