80 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS 



Mr. W. L. Dawson tells me the following interesting story of how 

 one of these loons helped another out of a difficulty. He came upon 

 a red-throated loon wrestling with some crude oil under its wing, 

 within a few feet of the water on a California beach. He writes: 



The bird awaited my approach warily, as if realizing the disadvantage of 

 his position, but as I pressed too close with focussed camera, he sprang to 

 wing, provoking me to a futile snap, plumped into the water almost immedi- 

 ately and struck out for deeper water. A mate, I will not say the mate, for there 

 were two red-throated loons in sight, saw his comrade's plight and hurried 

 forward so eagerly that he took wing in his anxiety to succor, and did the 

 "shoot-the-chutes" act with a fine display of wing and splash of water. After 

 this the newcomer pressed forward toward me, as though to cover his com- 

 rade's retreat and paraded up and down at close quarters while the other bird 

 was pulling away. It was difficult to believe that either parental instinct or sex 

 gallantry took a part here. It was more likely a bit ofr fraternal altruism. 



The inland migration route includes the Great Lakes and follows 

 the valleys of the large rivers, but it is eventually coastwise. It 

 winters occasionally in the interior, where it can find large bodies 

 of open water and is sometimes caught by a sudden freeze when it 

 perishes on the ice or snow for lack of food. The principal winter 

 home of the species, however, is at sea and it extends along prac- 

 tically the whole of both coasts of the United States. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. Northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. 

 In North America east to northern Greenland (Floeberg Beach, lati- 

 tude 82 27' N., Bowdoin Bay, and Whale Sound), Labrador, and 

 Newfoundland. South to New Brunswick (Bay of Fundy, for- 

 merly), central Quebec (Point de Monts), central Keewatin (Fort 

 Churchill), southern Mackenzie (Great Slave Lake and perhaps 

 somewhat south of that latitude), Queen Charlotte Islands (Graham 

 Island), and southern Alaska (near Sitka; Glacier Bay; Prince Wil- 

 liam Sound, Cordova; Cooks Inlet, Seldovia). West to the Aleutian 

 and Commander Islands and Bering Sea. North to northern Alaska 

 (Point Barrow and the Arctic coast), Banks Land (Mercy Bay), 

 Melville Island, Ellsmere Land, and Grant Land (82 30' N.). 

 Stray birds occasionally summer in northern United States and 

 southern Canada. Said to have bred once at Pittston, Pennsylvania. 



In the Old World: East to northeastern Siberia (Delta of Kolyma 

 River, Cape Serdze, and Anadyr district) and Bering Sea. South 

 to Saghalin Island and Kurile Islands (Paramushir and Shunishu). 

 Southern limits of breeding range over much of Siberia and Europe 

 very poorly defined. West to British Isles (Ireland, northern Scot- 

 land, the Outer Hebrides ; Orkney and Shetland Islands) . North to 



