LOON. 31 



Nest, a hollow in the sand near the water's edge, sometimes lined with 

 grass, weeds, etc. 



Eggs, two or three, olive-brown, spotted and blotched with very dark 

 brown. 



The Loon, on account of his large size, is conspicuous wherever he 

 appears, and his loud and melancholy cry is often heard at night 

 during rough weather, when the bird himself is invisible. Many pairs 

 raise their young by the remote lakes and ponds throughout the 

 country, but they all retire farther south to spend the winter. As 

 soon as the ice disappears they return, mostly in pairs, and by the 

 end of May have chosen their summer residence. The Loon, in 

 common with some other water-fowl, has a curious habit, when its 

 curiosity is excited by anything it does not understand, of pointing 

 its bill straight upwards, and turning its head rapidly round in every 

 direction, as if trying to solve the mystery under consideration. 

 Once when in my shooting skiff, behind the rushes, drifting down the 

 bay before a light wind, I came upon a pair of these birds feeding 

 about twenty yards apart. They did not take much notice of what 

 must have seemed to them a clump of ^floating rushes, and being close 

 enough to one of them I thought to secure it, but the cap snapped. 

 The birds hearing the noise, and still seeing nothing living, rushed 

 together, and got their bills up, as described, for a consultation. So 

 close did they keep to each other that I shot them both dead at forty 

 yards with the second barrel. 



In his notes on the " Birds of Hudson's Bay," Dr. Bell says : 

 "The Loon, or Great Northern Diver, is at home in and around 

 Hudson's Bay. In the spring, as soon as the water opens at the 

 mouths of the rivers, these birds appear in incredible numbers, as if 

 by a previous understanding, about a common meeting place. At 

 such a time they may be much more easily approached than usual. 

 These birds are said to spear the fish with the bill closed, and to 

 bring them to the surface so that they may turn them endways for 

 the purpose of swallowing The gulls, hovering overhead, and seeing 

 what is going on down in the clear water, watch for the moment the 

 fish is raised to the surface, when they swoop down and carry it off. 

 When many hungry gulls are present, this process is repeated till the 

 patience of the Loon is quite exhausted." 



In Alaska, Nelson says : "Throughout the interior of the territory 

 this bird is a common summer resident, and was found breeding 

 abundantly at the western extremity of the Aleutian Islands by 

 Dall. The skins of the birds arelused by the natives in their bird- 

 skin clothing, and are specially prized for tool-bags." 



