COMMON LOON 53 



birds, do not assume this winter plumage at all, for I have seen birds in 

 fully adult breeding plumage in September, October, and November. 



Food. This loon feeds largely on fish, which it pursues beneath 

 the surface with wonderful power and speed. The subaqueous rush 

 of this formidable monster must cause great consternation among the 

 finny tribes. Even a party of fish-hunting mergansers is promptly 

 scattered before the onslaught of such a powerful rival; they recog- 

 nize his superior strength and speed, as he plunges in among them, 

 and must stand aside until his wants are satisfied. Even the lively 

 trout, noted for its quickness of movement, can not escape the loon 

 and large numbers of these desirable fish are destroyed to satisfy its 

 hunger. Some sportsmen have advocated placing a bounty on loons 

 on this account, but as both loon and trout have always flourished 

 together until the advent of the sportsmen, it is hardly fair to blame 

 this bird, which is such an attractive feature of the wilds, for the 

 scarcity of the trout. We are too apt to condemn a bird for what 

 little damage it does in this way, without giving it credit for the right 

 to live. 



Mr. Hersey's notes state that a loon killed at Chatham, Massachu- 

 setts, in February had in its gullet 15 flounders averaging about 4 

 inches in length, but several of which were 6 inches long; in addition 

 to this hearty meal, its stomach was completely filled with a mass of 

 partly digested fish. 



Audubon (1840) says of its food habits: 



Unlike the cormorant, the loon usually swallows its food under the water, 

 unless it happens to bring up a shellfish or a crustaceous animal, which it 

 munches for awhile before it swallows it. Fishes of numerous kinds, aquatic 

 insects, water lizards, frogs, and leeches, have been found by me in its stomach, 

 in which there is generally much coarse gravel, and sometimes the roots of 

 fresh-water plants. 



Dr. B. H. Warren (1890) says: 



The stomach contents of seven loons, captured during the winter months in 

 Chester, Delaware, Clinton, and Lehigh Counties, Pennsylvania, consisted en- 

 tirely of fish bones and scales; two other specimens, purchased in the winter 

 of 1881 from a game dealer in Philadelphia, were found to have fed on small 

 seeds and portions of plants, apparently roots. 



A loon which was kept for a while at the New York Aquarium, in 

 a pool with skates and sculpins, was very aggressive, according to 

 Mr. C. H. Townsend (1908) ; although "supplied with an abundance 

 of live killifishes, its activity led it to strike frequently at the large 

 fishes and it succeeded in swallowing one of the sculpins with a head 

 larger than its own." 



Dr. P. L. Hatch (1892) says: 



Though fish and frogs are preferably their food, they do nicely without them 

 when supplied with aquatic vegetation. If undisturbed by being fired at, they 

 will visit the same localities daily during the season for their food. 



