LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS. 53 
birds, do not assume this winter plumage at all, for I have seen birds in 
fully adult breeding plumage in September, October, and November. 
Food.—This loon feeds largely on fish, which it pursues beneath the 
surface with wonderful power and speed. The subaqueous rush of 
this formidable monster must cause great consternation among the 
finny tribes. Even a party of fish-hunting mergansers is promptly 
scattered before the onslaught of such a powerful rival; they recog- 
nize his superior strength and speed, as he plunges in among them, 
and must stand aside until his wants are satisfied. Even the lively 
trout, noted for its quickness of movement, can not escape the loon 
and large numbers of these desirable fish are destroyed to satisfy its 
hunger. Some sportsmen have advocated placing a bounty on loons 
on this account, but as both loon and trout have always flourished 
together until the advent of the sportsmen, it is hardly fair to blame 
this bird, which is such an attractive feature of the wilds, for the 
scarcity of the trout. We are too apt to condemn a bird for what 
little damage it does in this way, without giving it credit for the right 
to live. . 
Mr. Hersey’s notes state that a loon killed at, Chatham, Massachu- 
setts, in February had in its gullet 15 flounders averaging about 4 
inches in length, but several of which were 6 inches long; in addition 
to this hearty meal its stomach was completely filled with a mass of 
partly digested fish. 
Audubon (1840) says of its food habits: 
Unlike the cormorant, the loon usually swallows its food under the water, 
unless it happens to bring up a shellfish or a crustaceous animal, which it 
munches for awhile before it swallows it. Fishes of numerous kinds, aquatic 
insects, water lizards, frogs, and leeches, have been found by me in its stomach, 
in which there is generally much coarse gravel, and sometimes the roots of 
fresh-water plants. 
Dr. B. H. Warren (1890) says: 
The stomach contents of seven loons, captured during the winter months in 
Chester, Delaware, Clinton, and Lehigh Counties, Pennsylvania, consisted en- 
tirely of fish bones and scales; two other specimens, purchased in the winter of 
1881 from a game dealer in Philadelphia, were found to have fed on small 
seeds and portions of plants, apparently roots. 
A loon which was kept for a while at the New York Aquarium, in 
a pool with skates and sculpins, was very aggressive, according to 
Mr. C. H. Townsend (1908) ; although “supplied with an abundance 
of live killifishes, its activity led it to strike frequently at the large 
fishes and it succeeded in swallowing one of the sculpins with a head 
larger than its own.” 
Dr. P. L. Hatch (1892) says: 
Though fish and frogs are preferably their food, they do nicely without them 
when supplied with aquatic vegetation. If undisturbed by being fired at, they 
will visit the same localities daily during the season for their food. 
