ANAKTUVUK PASS 29 



Family GAVIIDAE: Loons 



Gavia immer (Briinnich) 



2 males June 4, 1948 weight (1), wing 379, 342 mm. 



Jime 21, 1951 3600 g. culmen 78, 73 mm. 



tarsus 79, 83 mm. 



The measurements of these two examples of black-billed loons fall 

 among the small-sized group which Bishop (1921) designated Gavia 

 immer elasson. Inasmuch as I have not found a clear demonstration 

 that a small race is discrete in size or separate in distribution, I would 

 prefer to call these two specimens Gavia immer^ as is done by Willett 

 (1933, p. 11) and by Kand (1947), who did not think that races 

 were distinguishable. 



This loon is called Tasingik, meaning "black-billed," in Nunamiut. 

 It is considered not common but of regular occurrence in the moun- 

 tains. Two black-billed loons were recorded seen May 27, 1949. A 

 pair was reported seen by Elijah Kakena at the lake near Summit 

 July 23, 1950. In June 1951, several were seen and heard in Tuluak 

 Valley so often that they were probably resident. One was observed 

 calling on Napaktualoitch Lake during two days in June while we 

 camped nearby. Calls and occasional subsequent views in flight near- 

 by suggested that lake as the center of a nesting pair. 



In Anaktuvuk Valley no nests have been found, but on a lake in Ok- 

 milaga Valley, about 50 miles west, a pair was known by Simon Pa- 

 neak to have nested several years ago. During July 1951, several black- 

 billed loons were observed and heard by Simon Paneak and William 

 Irving in the Killik Eiver Valley. 



They are only seen on large lakes where fishing for human food is 

 likely to be good. Without wind they cannot take flight, whereas 

 yellow-billed loons take off somewhat more readily. Loons of both 

 species frequent large bodies of water where they are clearly visible, 

 and the black bill distinguishes them from yellow-billed loons at great 

 distances in the bright light of arctic summer. 



The lakes and country are daily searched by the Nunamiut with tele- 

 scopes in their surveys for game, and large loons and even small birds 

 are carefully examined until identified. All birds seen are noted and 

 with other natural phenomena are the subject of careful discussion 

 when people get together. Every such observation which a mountain 

 Eskimo makes or hears seems to become recorded in his memory, for 

 I have often asked them to recapitulate records and never found de- 

 viation in a statement of factual observation. It is therefore unlikely 

 that there was another pair of black-billed loons in the Valley between 

 Summit and the mountain line in 1950, but there may have been more 

 than a pair present in 1951. The black-billed loons acted like steady 



