LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS. 55 
under favorable circumstances, the loon often attains a speed of 60 
miles an hour. Its momentum is so great that when shot, high up 
in the air, it will strike the water in falling at a sneprisiauly long 
distance, plowing up the surface or bounding along over it. I have 
been told of serious damage being done to a gunner’s dory where 
one of these heavy birds had fallen into it. A 15-pound bird flying 
at the rate of a mile a minute might be expected to cause some trouble 
under the circumstances. The flight of a loon is decidedly distine- 
tive; such a rakish craft, long and pointed at both ends, could not be 
dabylerr for anything else. The great northern diver can be dis- 
tinguished from the red-throated loon by its heavier build, and, if 
near enough, the adult bird can be recognized by its black head and 
neck, 
I have never seen a loon fly, except when lighting, with anything 
but perfectly steady and rapid wing beats, but the Hon. R. Magoon 
Barnes (1897) relates an experience aihiels is an exception to this 
rule. On the Illinois River, during the spring migration, he saw 
a loon “making great circles in the air, flapping its wings and then 
sailing.” It “circled round and round and round, very much after 
the fashion of a bald eagle; rising spirally higher and higher, con- 
tinuing the flapping of its wings, and the sailing movements until 
it reached a great altitude. Finally, after it had raised in the air 
until it appeared but little larger than a blackbird, it straightened out 
its wings, and pointing its long neck toward the North Pole sailed 
with great rapidity.” With wings set “it seemed to coast or 
slide down hill, as it were, toward the north.” He watched the 
bird as far as he could trace it, but “could see no movement of the 
wings,” though it “seemed to be traveling at a tremendous rate.” 
A loon requires nearly as much space to alight in the water as to 
rise from it, and creates quite as much commotion at the finish of its 
flight as at the beginning; its small wings are unable to check the 
momentum of its heavy body; it circles lower and lower until it 
can stand the shock of sliding into the water, striking it with a tre- 
mendous splash, plowing a long furrow and sending the spray flying. 
It is not a graceful performance, but it is full of force and power. 
The loon is a rapid swimmer and a wonderful diver. It is much 
more at home in the water than elsewhere. Its plunge beneath the 
surface is exceedingly quick and graceful, causing little disturbance; 
with wings closely folded, it is propelled by its powerful paddles 
alone, which usually work alternately, driving it at a high speed. 
The loon can swim for a long distance under water and always pre- 
fers to escape in this way. While endeavoring to escape in this way 
it often swims with only its bill protruding, which is nearly in- 
visible and after a brief breathing spell it is fortified for another 
