LOONS 143 



praecocial. Loons feed chiefly on fish, which they procure by diving, 

 progressing when under water usually by aid of the feet alone. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES 



1. Throat black or gray. 



A. Throat black. 



a. Head black 7. LOON. 



b. Head ashy 9. BLACK-THROATED LOON. 



B. Throat gray, foreneck chestnut 11. RED-THROATED LOON. 



2. Throat not black or gray. 



A. Throat white or whitish; back fuscous, margined with grayish. 



a. Wing over 13'00; base of bill to anterior end of nostril '75 or over. 



7. LOON (Im.). 



6. Wing under 13'00; base of bill to anterior end of nostril less than '75. 



9. BLACK-THROATED LOON (Im.). 



B. Throat white or whitish; back fuscous, spotted with white. 



11. RED-THROATED LOON (Im.). 



7. Gavia immer (Brunn.). LOON. (Fig. 226.) Ads. in summer. 

 Upperparts, wings, tail, and neck black with bluish or greenish reflections; 

 spaces on the throat and sides of neck streaked with white; back and wings 

 spotted and barred with white; breast and belly white; sides and a band at 

 base of under tail-coverts black spotted with white. Ads. in winter and Im. 

 Upperparts, wings and tail blackish margined with grayish, not spotted 

 with white; underparts white; throat sometimes washed with grayish. 

 L., 32-00; W., 14'00; Tar., 3'40; B., 2*80. 



Range. N. part of N. Hemisphere. Breeds in Am. from Kotzebue 

 Sound, Banks Land, Barrow Strait, and n. Greenland s. to n. Calif., n. 

 Iowa, n. 111. (at least formerly), n. Ind., n. Ohio, n. N. Y., Pa. (casually), N. 

 H., Mass, (rarely), and N. S.; winters from s. B. C., the Great Lakes, and 

 s. New England to s. L. Calif., the Gulf coast, and Fla. 



Washington, common W. V., Sept. -June. Long Island, common W. 

 V., Aug. 10-May 31. Ossining, common T. V., Mch. and Oct. Cambridge, 

 rare T. V., Apl. to early May; Sept. -Nov. N. Ohio, not common T. V., 

 Mch. 17- Apl. 30; Oct. 15-30. Glen Ellyn, irregular, uncommon T. V., Apl. 2 

 -June 17. SE. Minn., common S. R., Apl. 1-Noy. 9. 



Nest, a slight depression in the ground within a few feet of the water, 

 sometimes on a mud lump or muskrat house. Eggs, 2, grayish olive-brown, 

 thinly spotted with blackish, 3-50 x 2-20. Date, Upton, Maine, June 15; 

 Mitchell's Bay, Ont., May 31; Pewaukee, Wise., May 7; se. Minn., 

 May 12. 



This wild inhabitant of our northern lakes and ponds possesses all 

 the characteristic traits of the Divers. Its remarkable notes are thus 

 described by J. H. Langille: 



' '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 thunderstorm, 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 as to sound almost 

 like a shake of the voice a sort of weird laughter." 



Loons may be seen migrating by day singly or in small companies, 

 generally at a considerable height. Their flight is strong, rapid and 

 direct. They winter in large numbers some distance off the Coast. 



