148 
N£STS AND EGGS OF 
small fish and aquatic insects. But after they have betaken themselves 
to the sea, they discard, in a measure, such small fry, and seek larger 
game, as they sport freely and lustily about in the exuberance of happy 
spirits. They are not long in acquiring their full stature, and in render- 
ing themselves acquainted with the vocabulary of their parents. The 
vocal expressions of the latter are harsh and loud, and may be aptly 
represented by the syllables cac, cac, carah, carah, delivered in rapid suc- 
cession. The birds are slow, however, in obtaining their full ]3lumage. 
This does not occur until the fourth year of their existence. 
The eggs of this species differ from those of the Loon, a near cousin, 
chiefly in size; being somewhat smaller. They pass from an oval form to 
one that is ovate, and, in some instances, are rather elongated. Their 
general color is an olivaceous-hrown, although specimens sometimes show a 
decided tendency to olivaceous-drab. We have seen others whose primary 
color was of a reddish-brown order. Scattered over the ground-color, but 
mainly about the larger extremity, spots of black or dark-brownish, vary- 
ing in size from a pin-point to an eighth of an inch, may be found more 
or less abundantly. A clutch of two before us from Greenland are oliva- 
ceous-hrown tending slightly to drab, and are marked with blackish spots 
of varying sizes. They measure respectively 3.13 and 3.07 inches in 
length, and 1.88 and 1.75 inches in diameter, giving a mean average 
measurement of 3.10 by 1.82 inches. In the cut they are figured as large 
as they appear in nature, and in the foreground. The birds are faithfully 
delineated as to colors and markings, hut show considerable diminution in 
size. In the natural state, the male has a length of twenty-seven, and a 
wing-expanse of eleven and a half inches ; the bill and tail each being 
two and a quarter inches. The female is a trifle smaller than her p>artner, 
weighing, on an average, about a pound less. Her plumage is the exact 
counterpart of his, or differs in no material particulars therefrom. 
