BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



base ; tarsi and feet brownish -yellow ; length about 32 inches ; extent about 55 ; bill 

 along culmen about 3 inches. 



Habitat. Northern part of Northern Hemisphere. In North America breeds 

 from the northern tier of states northward ; ranges in winter south to the Gulf of 

 Mexico. 



This bird, the largest of all the Divers, is about as large as a medium- 

 sized domestic goose. The Loon, known to many as the Great Northern 

 , Diver, is a regular and tolerably common spring and fall migrant, fre- 

 quenting, principally, the rivers, larger streams and lakes. In the 

 winter, when streams and other bodies of water are not frozen over, indi- 

 viduals of this species are frequently to be found with us. Although 

 not known to breed in Pennsylvania, these birds are sometimes seen 

 here in the breeding season. Hon, N. F. Underwood, member of the 

 Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture, residing at Lake Como, Wayne 

 county, and hunters living in Wyoming and Susquehanna counties, 

 have informed me that solitary Loons are occasionally to be found 

 throughout the summer months, inhabiting the numerous small lakes 

 in the northeastern parts of this commonwealth. In Lycoming county 

 Mr. August Koch says "the Loon is a common visitor of tener to be 

 noticed in the spring than in fall, and occasionally single birds may be 

 noticed in the first summer months." The Loon, ever cautious and vigi- 

 lant, will dive at the flash of a gun and proceed under the water to a 

 very considerable distance before reappearing. These birds, it is said, 

 when endeavoring to elude their enemies, and also, at times, when in 

 quest of food, swim under the water with greater rapidity than they 

 fly through the air. Writing of the Loon, Nuttall says, in referring to 

 its voice, " far out at sea in winter, and in the great western lakes, par- 

 ticularly Huron and Michigan, in summer, I have heard, on a fine, calm 

 morning, the sad and wolfish call of the solitary Loon, which, like a dis- 

 mal echo, seems slowly to evade the ear, and rising as it proceeds, dies 

 away in the air. This boding sound to mariners, supposed to be indic- 

 ative of a storm, may be heard sometimes for two or three miles, when 

 the bird itself is invisible, or reduced almost to a speck in the distance." 

 The stomach contents of seven Loons, captured during the winter 

 months in Chester, Delaware, Clinton and Lehigh counties, Pa., con- 

 sisted entirely of fish-bones and scales ; two other specimens, purchased 

 in the winter of 1881 from a game dealer in Philadelphia, were found to 

 have fed on small seeds and portions of plants, apparently roots. Indi- 

 viduals of this species are, it is said, sometimes found in the Hudson 

 Bay region weighing as much as fifteen or sixteen pounds apiece. The 

 female is somewhat smaller than the male. The weight of three females 

 taken in Pennsylvania in the early spring ranged from seven to seven 

 and three-quarter pounds each, and two males, one taken on the Lehigh 

 river, in the fall, the other captured in Warren county, on the Allegheny 

 river, in the spring, tipped the scales each at nine and three-quarter 

 pounds. 



