BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Urinator lumme (GUNN.). 



Red-throated Loon. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Bill rather slender, about two and one-quarter inches long and bluish-black ; front 

 and sides of head, chin, upper part of throat and sides of neck bluish-gray ; crown, 

 hind neck, sides and upper parts generally brownish-black, glossed, more or less, 

 with greenish, and spotted or streaked with white ; front of neck with a longitudinal 

 and triangular patch of rich reddish-brown ; under parts white ; legs (dried speci- 

 men) brownish-black ; iris, red in adult, and reddish-brown in young. The young 

 and adults, in winter, lack the bright chestnut-colored patch on fore-neck, and plu- 

 mage of upper parts generally is brownish-gray, conspicuously spotted with white ; 

 length about 26 inches ; extent about 44 inches. 



Habitat. Northern part of Northern Hemisphere, migrating southward in winter 

 nearly across the United States. 



The Red-throated Loon, a rare and irregular visitor in this locality 

 has been taken in the late fall, winter and early spring-, in different parts 

 of the state. Specimens have been captured in Lycoming-, Clinton, 

 Northampton and Philadelphia counties, and I have been informed that 

 on Lake Erie, in the neighborhood of Erie city, this bird is often met 

 with, especially late in the autumn. The individuals which come as far 

 southward as Pennsylvania are usually young-. Red-throated Loons are 

 much more common along- the sea-coast from Maine to Maryland in 

 the winter season, than in the interior, and in the summer or breeding- 

 time (June and July) they retire much farther north than the Great 

 Northern Diver. The food of this bird is similar to that of the previ- 

 ously described species. 



FAMILY ALGID JE. AUKS, MURRES AND PUFFINS. 



THE AUKS, ETC. 



The members of this family, numbering about twenty-five species and subspecies 

 in North America, are all exclusively marine. Many of them inhabit almost con- 

 stantly the northern seas. Species are much more numerous on the Pacific coast 

 than on the Atlantic; but few birds of this family have been observed in Pennsyl 

 vania and doubtless those taken here have been driven inland by severe storms. 

 These birds are gregarious, certain species, especially during the breeding season, 

 assembling in great numbers. One egg is laid on the bare ground or in crevices of 

 rocks ; high cliffs along the ocean, it is stated, are usually the favorite breeding-sites. 

 Like the Loons, most of these birds move over the ground in an awkward manner ; 

 their flight, however, is quite rapid and they swim and dive with great address. 

 When swimming under the water in quest of prey, particularly fish, on which they 

 principally subsist, they employ their wings in the same manner as when flying m 

 the air. The eggs and young of many of these birds are, it is said, quite highly 

 esteemed as food by natives in Arctic countries, where the tough skins with their 

 thick coatings of feathers are also considerably used to make articles of wearing 

 apparel. In birds of this family the hind toe is absent, and the three front toes are 

 united by a continuous web. 



