THE LOON. 305 



gin, and to have come from a word signifying lame, because 

 the bird is unable to walk regularly. One caught in a seine, 

 and brought to me in excellent condition, without any 

 injury whatever, was wholly unable to rise from the ground, 

 and could barely shuffle along a few feet, aiding itself with 

 the shoulders of its wings. Its position in standing is 

 nearly upright, after the manner of the Grebes; otherwise 

 it cannot maintain the center of gravity on account of the 

 posterior location of its legs. If perchance the Loon 

 alights on land, away from the water, it cannot rise again. 

 Every now and then during their migrations, one is found in 

 this situation, and may then be picked up and carried off 

 without any difficulty whatever. 



As one might expect under these circumstances, the Loon's 

 nest, which is a rude structure of rushes, is hard by the 

 water, on an island, or on the shore of the main land, gen- 

 erally on the edge of a little island in a lake. The eggs, 2 or 

 3, some 3.25 x 2.15, long and pointed, are brown or greenish- 

 brown, sparsely spotted all over with dark brown. 



The Loon breeds on St. Clair Flats in considerable num- 

 bers, the nest being built up from the bottom, of rushes and 

 sedges, extending some eight or ten inches above the sur- 

 face, and containing a dry depression to receive the eggs. 

 Very possibly these nests are all deserted muskrat-houses. 

 I could not fully determine. 



The notes of this bird, being most frequent before a storm, 

 are remarkable. Beginning on the fifth note of the scale, 

 the voice slides through the eighth to the third of the scale 

 above, in loud, clear, sonorous tones, which, on a dismal 

 evening before a thunder storm, the lightning already playing 

 along the inky sky, are anything but musical. He has also 

 another rather soft and pleasing utterance, sounding like 

 who-who-who-who, the syllables being so rapidly pronounced 

 20 



