LOONS 21 



sometimes in brackish waters along the coast. It is a shy, 

 secretive bird, very adept at hiding among the reeds or other 

 vegetation in. its chosen haunts. Usually it escapes its pur- 

 suer by diving with lightning-like rapidity and reappearing at 

 some distant and unexpected point, but it has the power, also, 

 of sinking slowly beneath the water, leaving scarcely a ripple 

 on the surface. It rarely takes wing when pursued, but is 

 capable of rapid and sustained flight. It is readily distin- 

 guished in life from the horned grebe by its brownish color 

 and its short, thick bill. 



Food habits. — The food of this grebe, according to Bent, 

 consists largely of "animal matter, such as small fishes, snails, 

 small frogs, tadpoles, aquatic worms, leeches, and water in- 

 sects; it also eats the seeds and soft parts of aquatic plants 

 to some extent. Balls of its own feathers often occur in its 

 stomach."* 



A single stomach from Alabama contained, in addition to 

 feathers (which composed more than half of the content), 

 remains of two or three small fishes and of two crawfishes. 



LOONS: Family Gaviidae. 



LOON: Gavia immer immer (Brunnich.) 



State records. — Loons are common winter residents in the 

 waters of Mississippi Sound and Perdido Bay and are found 

 in smaller numbers on the inland waters of Alabama. In 

 Mississippi Sound they were seen daily from November 12 to 

 26, 1915, and on Deceniber 4, 1916. I observed a flock of 9 

 feeding in the middle of Perdido Bay, December 9, 1915, 

 Golsan and Holt report one taken at Prattville in the winter 

 of 1889 or 1890, and one at Barachias in April, 1905.t In the 

 collection of the University of Alabama is a mounted speci- 

 men killed near Tuscaloosa about 1894. An unusual occur- 

 rence, reported by R. R. Bottoms, was the capture of a loon in 

 a field at Logan in February, 1912, the bird being unable to 



fly. 



The species arrives from the North during October and re- 

 mains until April. An unusually late date is furnished from 



'Bent, A. C, Life histories of North American diving birds: Bull. 107, U. S. Nat. 



™ t Goisan and Holt, The Birds of Autauga and Montgomery Counties, Alabama : The 

 Auk, vol. 81, p. 216, 1914. 



