AMONG THE WATER-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 is 

 rough, I have found it not so difficult 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 considerable, 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 when 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 



