Loons at Home 41 



Those of you who arc famiHar with the Adirondack or Canada 

 lakes can easily picture the surroundings of this nest, which I found 

 in Higley Lake, Canada. This is a small body of water, hardly 

 more than a very lar'ge pond. This section of Canada may be 

 called a lake region, and is very beautiful. Most of the lakes are 

 surrounded with forests, in which the contrasting colors of the ever- 

 greens and white birches add greatly to the natural beauty of the 

 scenery. This nest was built in very shallow water, about eight 

 feet from the shore. It was, at its base, about twenty inches in 

 diameter, and at its apex about fifteen inches wide. It was about 

 nine inches above the water at its greatest height, and composed 

 entirely of mud, so far as I could determine, of a very dark color. 

 The water where it was placed was not over six or eight inches 

 deep, but it was really a very hard matter to determine exactly where 

 the water ended and the mud commenced. This 1 ascertained to 

 my sorrow and discomfiture when I undertook to set up my tripod. 

 Standing in a very round-bottomed boat and trying to plant a tripod 

 in silt of seemingly unfathomable depth is no easy job. as I found 

 out. Finally, however, I succeeded in getting what I now have the 

 pleasure of showing you ; but I dare not tell you of the beautiful 

 failures I made before this picture was obtained. When I first dis- 

 covered the nest, the Loon was upon it, but as soon as she saw 

 me she slid off into the lake and made every effort to dive. It 

 is true that her head was under the water, but her back was not 

 until she had gone some feet from the nest out into the lake, where 

 the water was deep enough to entirely cover her. She did not 

 then appear until she was well across the pond, where she was 

 joined by her mate. The nest contained only one egg when I 

 first saw it ; but in the water, on the lake side of the nest, I 

 found another egg, which the mother bird had evidently rolled out 

 of the nest, perhaps in her fright and hasty departure when she 

 first saw me. This egg I replaced in the nest by lifting it with 

 the broad end of the boat oar, thinking, perhaps, that hand- 

 ling it might cause the Loon to desert the nest. The egg that 

 was in the water was many shades lighter in color than the one 

 found in the nest, which leads me to believe that the eggs of birds 

 that habitually breed in damp mud nests acquire a darker color 

 from stains. 



In another pond of about the same size, and within half a mile 

 of Higley Lake, I subsequently saw a pair of Loons that had but 

 one young, so far as I could ascertain. If there was another it 

 was kept well hidden. I was very much interested in watching 

 the methods by which the old birds kept the little fellow out of 



