RED-THROATED LOON 73 



interior it is different. Though the summer is short, the sun is high 

 in the heavens and the days are long; the abundant moisture in the 

 air stimulates the growth of vegetation; the snow disappears rapidly 

 and the verdure of spring follows quickly in the wake of retreating 

 winter. Within a few feet of a vanishing snowbank I have seen 

 the dwarfed willows, recently uncovered, already budded and burst- 

 ing into leaf and a few yards farther away fully leaved out or even 

 blossoming. Back from the rocky coast only a short distance the 

 rolling hills are softly carpeted with deep mosses, covered with 

 fresh verdure and dotted with blooming wild flowers in great va- 

 riety and profusion. Here among the thousands of small lakes and 

 ponds in the sheltered hollows, fed with the water from melting 

 snow and studded with little islands, the red-throated loons find a 

 congenial summer home and hither they come as soon as the fetters 

 of winter are unlocked. We saw them everywhere along both the 

 south and north coasts almost daily, flying inland to the lakes or 

 even about the little ponds on the islands. 



Courtship. Audubon's (1840) graphic pen thus describes their 

 courtship: 



High over these waters, the produce of the melted snows, the red-throated 

 diver is seen gamboling by the side of his mate. The males emit their love 

 notes, and, with necks gracefully curved downward, speed by the females, 

 saluting them with mellow tones as they pass. In broad circles they wheel 

 their giddy flight, and now, with fantastic glidings and curves, they dive to- 

 ward the spot of their choice. Alighted on the water, how gracefully they swim, 

 how sportively they beat it with their strong pinions, how quickly they plunge 

 and rise again, and how joyously do they manifest to each other the depth and 

 intensity of their affection. Now with erected neck and body deeply immersed 

 they swim side by side. Reynard they perceive cunningly advancing at a dis- 

 tance; but they are too vigilant for him, and down like a flash they go, nor 

 rise again until far beyond his reach. Methinks I see them curiously con- 

 cealed among the rank weeds under the bank of their own islet, their bills 

 alone raised above the water, and there will they remain for an hour, rather 

 than show themselves to their insidious enemy, who, disappointed, leaves them 

 to pursue their avocations. 



Many of the birds are paired before they start on their northward 

 migration, as they are often seen migrating in pairs, traveling high 

 in the air, their long necks pointing northward and their white 

 breasts glistening in the sunlight. Perhaps they are mated for life, 

 as the common loon is supposed to be. They often arrive on their 

 breeding grounds while the lakes are still frozen, when they fre- 

 quent the mouths of rivers or the open sea until the melting snows 

 produce the first pools of water in the interior and their summer 

 homes becomes habitable. After that they return to the sea only 

 to feed. 



Throughout northern Alaska the red-throated loon is the most 

 abundant and most widely distributed species, a characteristic fea- 



