THE BLACK-THROATED LOON. 637 



attempt made to conceal the nest. On the contrary, a position on some 

 promontory or plain stretch of shore is chosen so that the bird may command 

 a wide sweep of territory. The eggs are sometimes placed on the bare sand, 

 but oftener upon a loose heap of trash or upon a grassy bog. If at some dis- 

 tance from the water, a path or runway marks the connection. 



Soon after the chicks are brought off the parents separate for the rest of 

 the season, the male retiring either to some unfrequented lake or to the sea- 

 coast to undergo the summer moult. At this season both birds cast their 

 feathers so thoroughly as to be for a time quite incapacitated for flight. 



The Loon is famous, especially in its northern breeding ground, for its 

 far-sounding and unearthly cry. Of this performance, Rev. J. H. Langille 

 says: "The notes of this bird being most frequent before a storm are re- 

 markable. Beginning on the fifth note of the scale, the voice slides through 

 the eighth to the third of the scale above in loud, clear sonorous tones, which 

 on a dismal evening before a thunder storm, the lightning already playing 

 along the inky sky, are anything but musical." The bird has also a softer and 

 less awful cry of weird laughter, which resounds from shore to shore in some 

 mountain solitude with strange ventriloquistic effect. 



No. 318. 



BLACK-THROATED LOON. 



A. O. U. No. 9. Qavia arctica (Linn.). 



Synonym. — ^BIvACK-throatbd DivEe. 



Description. — Adult in summer: Somewhat similar to preceding species but 

 smaller ; top of head and nape bluish gray ; a short transverse bar of white streaks 

 on throat, and the sides of the neck between the black and the gray similarly 

 streaked in longitudinal series ; sides of breast more widely black and white 

 striped than in G. imber (in which only the sides of the cervix so striped) nearly 

 meeting in front; a blackish bar across base of lower tail-coverts; under parts 

 pure white; above and on sides of back, marked and spotted with white. Adult 

 in winter and immature: Corresponding closely with the similar stages in G. 

 imber and distinguishable with certainty only by smaller size. Length 27.00 (685) ; 

 wing 11.00 (279.4) ; bill 2.00 (50.8) ; tarsus 2.60 (66.) (Chapman). 



Recognition Marks. — Brant size ; like G. imber but smaller ; top of head and 

 nape, in summer plumage, bluish gray. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in Ohio. Nest and Bggs as in preceding species. 

 Av. of eggs 3.15 X 2.05 (80. X 52.1). 



General Range. — Northern part of the northern hemisphere. In North 

 America of casual occurrence in autumn and winter in the northern United States 

 east of the Rocky Mountains. 



