THE GREAT DIVER 13 



spring and perchance hatch the other great brown egg that 

 still remained in the nest. This egg was almost as large 

 as a goose's egg, rather long in shape, and somewhat 

 pointed at one end. It was chocolate brown, more or less 

 marked and splashed with a deeper color. Only two had 

 been laid in this nest, altho the common loon occasionally 

 lays three eggs. 



Presently, from the far end of the lake came a long 

 laughing idiotic call, very much like the hysterical laugh 

 of a lunatic, weird, wild, but not unmusical. The weather 

 was warm, and recognizing this as the call of her mate, 

 the mother slid into the water and swam rapidly down the 

 lake to join him. With her wings tightly folded on her 

 back she swam with long, alternating sweeps of her great 

 webbed feet, making a speed that is possible to only a few 

 of the swimming birds. Before she reached her lord, she 

 noticed a young shiny trout in the clear water below and, 

 diving, set chase. The startled trout, recognizing his 

 danger, darted away with the utmost speed, but the great 

 bird gained rapidly in spite of his exertions. Presently 

 she caught him some six or eight feet under water and 

 crunching his body two or three times gave him a quick 

 twirl and catching him by the head swallowed him before 

 she reached the surface. 



Joining her lord they played about over the surface of 

 the lake for some time, then, mindful of her baby, she 

 returned to her brooding. Things ran along in this way 

 for two or three days, when the great diver became im- 

 patient to get into the water; the mother loon, finding 

 that the remaining eggs did not hatch, permitted him 

 to do this. That night the little family rested together on 



