YELLOW-BILLED LOON 61 



Kolyma River and Chaun Bay, swimming among the ice. It was observed 

 once only in a lake July 20, 1912. A skin, however, was seen in the posses- 

 sion of a native at Shornoy Myss, a point about 300 miles up the Kolyma River. 

 No nests, or young birds, were found during the trip, and no specimens were 

 taken. 



Nesting. Mr. Roderick MacFarlane (1908), the veteran natural- 

 ist who has done more than any other one man to add to our knowl- 

 edge of the nesting habits of northern birds, was equally unfortunate 

 in hunting for the nest of this rare bird. He writes: 



Although this species was very numerous on the polar shores of Liverpool 

 and Franklin Bays, where it no doubt breeds, yet we never succeeded in finding 

 even one well authenticated set of its eggs, while it is possible that the two 

 Adamsii eggs referred to on page 452 of volume 2, of the Water Birds of North 

 America, by Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, may have belonged to the great 

 northern diver. 



There is a set of eggs in the collection of Col. John E. Thayer, 

 taken by Capt. J. Smythe on June 21, 1898. The nest is described as 

 made of twigs and grasses, situated 6 feet from the water, on an 

 island in the Mackenzie River, near its mouth. These eggs are not 

 distinguishable from ordinary eggs of the common loon; the ground 

 color is "Dresden brown" or halfway between that color and "sepia"; 

 and the markings are in no way distinctive. 



Eggs. Mr. R. M. Barnes writes me that he has received an egg of 

 this species taken by the Rev. A. R. Hoare near Point Hope, Alaska, 

 in June 12, 1916. The nest is described as a bare tussock or hum- 

 mock surrounded by water in a small lake on the tundra. Mr. Hoare 

 adds: "Could not shoot male or female, though both remained near 

 and were identified by myself." Mr. Hoare also sent me a set of 

 two eggs, with the parent bird, taken the same season in the same 

 locality, in wet grass on a small island. The eggs are "elliptical 

 ovate" in shape; the color of one is "Saccardo's umber" and of the 

 other "snuff brown;" the first is sparingly and the second rather 

 profusely spotted with "bone brown." 



I received another set of two eggs, with the parent bird, taken the 

 same season by Mr. T. L. Richardson near Point Barrow, Alaska. 

 No data came with this set. The eggs are "elongate ovate" in shape, 

 slightly lighter than "bister" in color and sparingly spotted with 

 "bone brown." I am inclined to think that the yellow-billed loon 

 habitually nests in or around the tundra pools at considerable dis- 

 tances back from the coast which are so difficult of access during the 

 breeding season that very few nests have been found. The measure- 

 ments of 17 eggs in various collections, said to be of this species, 

 average 89 by 56.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 95 by 60, 92 by 66, 80 by 56, and 85 by 53.5 millimeters. 



Plumages. The downy young of this species is very light colored, 

 varying from "natal brown" on the back and rump to "wood 



