Vol. IY] Hersey, The Black-throated Loon in N. A. 283 
THE STATUS OF THE BLACK-THROATED LOON (GAVIA 
ARCTICA) AS A NORTH AMERICAN BIRD. 
BY F. SEYMOUR HERSEY. 
In collecting and tabulating data for use in the distributional 
portion of Mr. A. C. Bent’s work on the Life-Histories of North 
American Birds, the published material on the Black-throated 
Loon was found to be unsatisfactory,— the records of various 
observers being frequently indefinite or in many cases not based 
on actual specimens secured. The earlier writers gave the species 
a rather wide range in North America, which has been gradually 
restricted until in the present A. O. U. Check-List it is stated to 
breed only in the Kotzebue Sound region of Alaska, and from 
Cumberland Sound south to Ungava, while some half dozen 
scattering localities in the United States are said to have been 
visited casually in winter. 
It was finally decided to verify, so far as possible, all North 
American records and requests for data were sent to all who were 
in a position to give authentic information concerning any of the 
various records or the specimens on which they were based. The 
results of this correspondence proved no less interesting than 
surprising. 
Mr. Bent has very generously placed all this data in the hands 
of the writer. He has also examined and measured the specimens 
of this species and Gavia pacifica in the collections of the U. 5. 
National Museum, the Museum of Comparative Zoélogy (includ- 
ing the Bangs collection) and the private collection of Mr. William 
Brewster. Mr. W. DeW. Miller of the American Museum of 
Natural History and Mr. P. A. Taverner of the Geological Survey 
of Canada have measured the birds in the collections of those 
institutions and Dr. Louis B. Bishop has sent notes and measure- 
ments from the specimens in: his collection. I have tabulated 
below, by locality, the various records and the results of our 
investigations. 
Alaska: It was formerly supposed that the Black-throated 
Loon ranged along the whole Bering Sea coast of Alaska. There 
