NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



7. LOON. 



drab, spotted and blotched with a very dark brown. In shape they are narrowly oval. 

 occasionally very much lengthened. The number laid is two, sometimes three; in 

 size they vary from 3.40 to 3.90 long by 2.10 to 2.38 broad. Two eggs in my possession 

 collected by Mr. McMillan measure 3.63x2.26, 3.44x2.25. 



8. YELLOW-BILLED LOON. Urinator adamsii (Gray.) Geog. Dist. West- 

 ern Arctic America and Northeastern Asia. 



This species is also known as the White-billed Loon. The bill is of a light yel- 

 lowish color, and the general dimensions of the bird are greater than those of the 

 last species. Less is known concerning the life history of this species than any of 

 the Loons. The type specimen was secured on the Alaskan side of Bering Strait by 

 Dr. Adams, of the British Navy, during the search for Sir John Franklin, and since 

 that time, beyond the fact that the bird ranges over most of the circumpolar main- 

 lands, little has been added to its history. It was first described in the Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society of London for 1859. Mr. John Murdoch (1885) records this 

 Loon as a regular summer visitor at Point Barrow, and it probably breeds, though the 

 <eggs were never found. L. 'M. Turner (1886) says that it occurs sparingly at Saint 

 Michael's. Mr. Nelson (1887) states that it is not a rare summer resident in certain 

 localities about the head of Kotzebue Sound. The nesting habits and the eggs of this 

 species are, in all probability, similar to those of the common Loon. 



Urinator articus (Linn.) Geog. Dist. North- 

 In North America migrating south in winter 



9. BLACK-THBOATED LOON. 



rn part of the Northern Hemisphere, 

 to the Northern States. 



The Black-throated Diver is a bird which is more or less common in the northern 

 regions of the globe. It breeds commonly throughout the interior of Norway and 

 Sweden, and far up into Lapland. In most parts of the British Islands this Loon is 



