12 NOTES ON THE 
glossy-white, with a narrow band of dusky feathers crossing 
the lower part of the abdomen, and marked with small white 
spots; lower tail coverts, blackish-brown, tipped with white; 
bill, black. compressed, strong and tapering; outline of upper 
mandible, nearly straight, very slightly curved; the lower 
mandible has a groove underneath running from the junction 
of the crora towards the point; the tail consists of twenty 
feathers. 
Length, 30; wing, 14; tarsus, 3; bill, 8; height at base, 1. 
Habitat, north portion of Northern Hemisphere. 
Though fish and frogs are preferably their food, they do 
nicely without them when supplied with aquatic vegetation. If 
undisturbed by being fired at, they will visit the same localities 
daily during the season for their food. 
Notre. This interesting bird has increased in relative num- 
bers on our larger lakes of late years, nothwithstanding the 
greater number of persons who visit them, and on which boys 
and sportsmen (?) are tacitly allowed to shoot at them to their 
heart’s content, as they rarely hit them. I had supposed that 
unless the firing was arrested, they would desert these favorite 
resorts, like White Bear, Waseca, and Minnetonka. Mr. Wil- 
liam Howling and Son of East Minneapolis presented me with 
the most beautiful and perfect specimen of Loon I have ever 
seen a few years ago, except that the tip of the bill is hooked. 
There are no indications of it having been produced by injury, 
but the tlexion downward is smooth and perfectly turned, 
Query :—Is it a case of evolution avaunt? 
URINATOR ARCTICUS (L.). (9.) 
BLACK-THROATED LOON. 
In the local observations of this exceedingly rarely seen 
Loon, we have an instance of the folly of making positive 
declarations of the limitations of the habitat of species before 
the fullest attainments from observations have been reached. 
The extremely pernicious practice of ambitious writers in 
anticipating the final testimonies of science in every depart- 
ment of investigation, has led to evils enough to lead to its 
abandonment long ago, but itis probable that the world will 
have to wait for the Millennium before the truth can be waited 
for till all the facts are in, and then, we devoutly hope the said 
writers will be better employed. The conservative A. O. U. 
have magnanimously allowed the Black-throated Loon to visit 
the Northern United States in winter. From the winter of 
1858 till that of 1869, eleven years, this very northern bird 
came indisputably within the range of my field glass in five of 
them, but I found it impossible to secure one for the reason 
