LOON 15 



off the supply of fresh-water fishes in their chosen 

 haunts. 



The Loon is so called on account of the strange cry 

 it utters, suggesting the laugh of a maniac; at other 

 times its voice has a piping, resonant sound. When 

 swimming under water, the wings are not used, the 

 Loon depending for progression entirely upon the 

 strokes of the feet — in which it differs from the Pen- 

 guins, to be described later. 



The adult male is very beautiful in summer plimi- 

 age. The head and upper part of the body are a deep 

 greenish-black, velvety in texture, and the breast is 

 silvery white. Over the back and around the neck are 

 numerous spots and lines of pure white, giving much 

 the effect of lace over the dark green; the eye is a deep 

 blood-red. 



An individual of the Common Loon, caught in a 

 fish-trap off the coast of Massachusetts, was kept for 

 some months in a pool belonging to the Fish Com- 

 mission Station at Woods Hole. Extremely shy at 

 first, for several days it would come to the surface of 

 the water at intervals, remaining only long enough 

 to breathe before diving again. Within a week, how- 

 ever, this Loon became ridiculously tame, and would 

 allow itself to be lifted from the water with as little 

 resistance as a wooden decoy. Although the pool was 

 more than a hundred feet in length, there was not 

 sufiicient distance for the bird to rise in the air and 

 fly over the low stone wall surrounding it, since these 

 birds require a long "start" in order to get on the 

 wing. Once fairly launched, however, they are 

 powerful and swift flyers; but on land they are ex- 



