46 GREAT NORTHERN DIVER OR LOON. 
three pairs, with their nests, on a pond not exceeding a quarter of a 
mile in length, in the State of Maine. One that I saw after the young 
had left it, on Cayuga Lake, in 1824, was almost afloat, and rudely at- 
tached to the rushes, more than forty yards from the land, though its 
base was laid on the bottom, the water being eight or nine inches 
deep. Others examined in Labrador were placed on dry land, several 
yards from the water, and raised to the height of nearly a foot above 
the decayed moss on which they were laid. But, in cases when the 
nest was found at any distance from the water, we discovered a well- 
beaten path leading to it, and very much resembling those made by the 
Beaver, to which the hunters give the name of “ crawls.” The nest, 
wherever placed, is bulky, and formed of the vegetable substances 
found in the immediate vicinity, such as fresh or withered grasses and 
herbaceous plants. The internal part, or the true nest, which is rarely 
less than a foot, and is sometimes fifteen inches, in diameter, is raised 
upon the external or inferior mass, to the height of seven or eight 
inches. Such was one found on the 5th July 1835, in Labrador, and 
which was placed within three yards of the edge of a considerable 
pond of limpid water, supposed to have been produced by the melt- 
ing of the snow, and upwards of a mile distant from the sea. Of 
the many nests which I have examined, I have found more containing 
three than two eggs, and I am confident that the former number is 
that which more frequently occurs, although many European, and some 
American writers, who probably never saw a nest of this bird, allege 
the contrary. The eggs average three inches and three quarters in 
length, by two inches and a quarter in their greatest breadth, and thus 
are considerably elongated, being particularly narrowed from the bulge 
to the smaller end, which is rather pointed. They are of a dull green- 
ish-ochry tint, rather indistinctly marked with spots of dark umber, 
which are more numerous toward the larger extremity. The weight 
of two of these eggs, containing young nearly ready to emerge, was 
ten ounces and a half. In Maine the Loon lays fully a month earlier 
than in Labrador, and about the same period as on the Wabash. 
On approaching the female while sitting on her eggs, I assured my- 
self that she incubates with her body laid flat upon them, in the same 
way as the Domestic Duck, and that, on perceiving the intruder, she 
squats close, and so remains until he is almost over her, when she 
springs up with great force, and makes at once for the water, in a 
