64 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS 



Macfarlane (1908) says: 



An Eskimo of our bird and egg gathering party observed a male Somateria 

 V. nigra struck and killed on the wing by an attacking bird of the species 

 under review. 



Fall. When the Arctic Ocean is closed with ice these loons are 

 forced to leave their summer homes, but where they go is one of the 

 many unsolved problems in American ornithology. They have been 

 frequently taken on migrations in the lakes and rivers of northern 

 Canada, but even these are frozen in winter. A few have been taken 

 or seen in the vicinity of the Aleutian and Commander Islands and 

 even on the coast of Alaska south of the peninsular. 



Winter. Professor Collett (1894) says that the yellow-billed loon 

 "visits the coasts of Norway annually, especially during the autumn 

 and winter, in some years even in considerable numbers," which sug- 

 gests the possibility that its main migration route may be westward, 

 along the Arctic coasts of Asia and Europe, to its principal winter 

 home in the vicinity of Norway. He says: 



The winter visitors usually appear in October, and most of the specimens 

 hitherto examined have been obtained during the period from October to De- 

 cember. During their visits to the Norwegian coasts these birds, on some 

 occasions, penetrate to the interior of the southernmost fjords (for instance, 

 the Christiania Fjord) ; but most of them appear to stop on the northern shores. 

 They disappear, as a rule, during the spring and summer, although it is not 

 improbable that stray individuals pass the summer without breeding on the 

 shores of Norway. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. Authentic eggs (accompanied by parent) have 

 been taken at Point Hope, Point Barrow, and Salmon River, Alaska, 

 and at the delta of the Mackenzie River. Dresser records a nest on 

 the River Omolai, Siberia. 



It has been reported in summer from northwestern Alaska (Nor- 

 ton Sound, Kotzebue Sound, and Selawik Lake north to Point Bar- 

 row) , east along the Arctic coast to Liverpool and Franklin Bays and 

 from the lakes in the interior of northern Mackenzie; also from 

 northeastern Siberia west to the Yenisei River and the Taimur Penin- 

 sula. It is supposed to breed more or less commonly throughout this 

 region, but authentic eggs are very rare in collections and there is 

 considerable evidence that many of the birds found in summer are not 

 breeding. Dixon found no signs of breeding in 14 specimens shot be- 

 tween June 3 and July 16 at Humphrey Point, Arctic Alaska. It has 

 been found very numerous in De Salis Bay, Banks Land, and its 

 main breeding grounds may prove to be the islands north of the 

 Arctic coast. Ross took three birds at the Boothia Peninsula and it 

 has occurred accidentally in Greenland. 



Winter range. Largely unknown. Has been reported from China 



