258 Wild Ducks, Water- Birds, Sea- Fowl. 



he gave over the chase and rested upon his oars. But 

 the bird made a final plunge, and when it emerged 

 upon the surface again it was over a mile away. Its 

 course must have been, and doubtless was, an actual 

 flight under water, and half as fast as the crow flies in 

 the air. The loon would have delighted the old poets. 

 Its wild demoniac laughter awakens the echoes on the 

 solitary lakes, and its ferity and hardiness were kindred 

 to those robust spirits." 



The loon, or crested grebe, is indeed a most interest- 

 ing bird. Whoever has seen him, as Mr. Burroughs 

 did, cannot but admire him. He pairs for life, and 

 both sexes are devotedly attached to the young. They 

 haunt the same nesting places year after year. They 

 lead out their young ones, and take them down with 

 them under their wings when they dive. The young 

 swim about quite freely as soon as they are hatched. 

 The nest is by no means artistic a mere rough mass 

 of flags and rushes and grasses, like that of the coot, 

 partly sunk under the water and partly raised above it, 



and contains three, 

 four, and sometimes 

 five, white or pale- 

 greenish white eggs. 

 And certainly not 

 the least among the 

 amenities of the sea- 

 side are the oppor- 

 tunities it affords for 

 the study of the gulls, 

 terns, sea-pies, the 

 KITTIWAKE. kittiwakes, black- 



backed gulls, herring -gulls, skuas, and others, very 

 remarkable in their manner of life, their powers of 



