LIFE PISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS. 57 
unless it is an old bird which has learned by experience. A man 
partially concealed in grass or underbrush near the shore of a lake 
will-sometimes serve to arouse the curiosity of some old loon who will 
call up a number of his companions to talk it over. They will then 
swim around in circles, gradually working in nearer. A sudden 
movement will cause them to dive like a flash or go scudding away; 
but they will swim up again, alternately advancing or retreating, 
until a shot from the man satisfies their curiosity. 
I must let some abler pen than mine describe the vocal perform- 
ances of this species, for it has a wonderful variety of notes, each 
of which probably has its special significance, and I feel wholly un- 
able to do justice to the subject. Mr. Francis H. Allen writes to me: 
The commonest notes, which are heard both by day and by night, are a 
weird maniacal laughter and a prolonged yodeling note which is much higher 
pitched in the middle than at the beginning or the end. This latter note is 
very loud and can be heard at a great distance. 
*Mr. William Lyman Underwood, who is an expert in imitating the 
notes of this loon, says that he recognizes four distinct calls: First, a 
short, cooing note, often heard when there are several loons together; 
second, a long drawn-out note, known among the guides as the night 
call; third, the laughing call, which is familiar to everybody who 
has ever been in a loon country; and fourth, another call which is 
not often heard, known among the guides as the storm call. This 
last is a very peculiar and weird performance which the guides re- 
gard as a sure sign of a coming storm. The notes of the loon can 
be closely imitated by the human voice, after a little practice—so 
closely that loons can be made to answer or can be called up; but the 
notes can be almost exactly reproduced on a little musical instrument 
known as an ocarina, or more commonly as a “sweet potato.” Mr. 
Underwood says that these instruments are made in different keys 
and that the proper one for the loon call is D 54. 
Mr. E. Howard Eaton (1910) gives the following good description 
of two of the loon’s commonest notes: 
The scream of the loon, uttered at evening, or on the approach of a storm, 
has to my ear, an unearthly and mournful tone resembling somewhat the dis- 
tant howl of a wolf. It is a penetrating note, loud and weird, delivered with 
a prolonged rising inflection, dropping at the end, resembling the syllables 
A-006-00, or as is often written 6-6-66h. Its laughter, however, is of a 
more pleasing quality, like the syllables hdd, hd6, hdd, hoo, hod, uttered in a 
peculiarly vibrating tremolo. 
This loon also has a peculiar warning cry as a signal of danger to 
its young, which they promptly obey, also a different warning cry 
to its incubating mate. 
Faill.—On the fall migration the young birds precede the adults 
by about three weeks, and they go much farther south. The princi- 
