22 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



a specimen which I shot at Grande Batture Island, May 23, 

 1911, but this bird may have been a cripple. At Coosada, a 

 dozen were seen by N. C. Brown flying north in March, 1878 ;% 

 at Umbria (8 miles west of Greensboro) one was taken in a 

 pond, and at Leighton, F. W. McCormack shot one, April 24, 

 1890. D. H. Bacon observed a pair in the Tennessee River, 

 near Florence, on May 8, 1912, and I saw one near Muscle 

 Shoals, April 22, 1914. 



General habits. — ^Loons are seen usually singly or in small 

 companies and are very wary, keeping well out of gunshot 

 and diving at the flash of a grun. They afford a tempting 

 mark for the hunter and are frequently shot at, usually with 

 indifferent success. When pursued, they easily escape by 

 diving and swimming long distances under water. They are 

 swift and powerful on the wing as wdl, and are often seen 

 flying over the waters of Mississippi Sound or the larger bays 

 along the coast. They are unable to rise from the land and 

 in taking flight from the water, they use their feet to aid 

 them in gaining momentum, pattering along on the surface 

 for some distance before rising into the air. Their loud, 

 laughing notes are often heard during their winter sojourn. 



Food habits. — ^Loons feed almost wholly upon fish, which 

 they secure by pursuing them beneath the surface of the 

 water. Bent mentions an instance of a loon killed at Chat- 

 ham, Massachusetts, which had in its gullet 15 flounders 

 averaging about 4 inches in length, several of them being 

 6 inches long.* Audubon speaks of having found in the loon's 

 stomach aquatic insects, "water-lizards," frogs, leeches, and 

 occasionally the roots of fresh-water plants.f 



GULLS AND TERNS: Family Laridae. 



HERRING GULL: Lams argentatvs argentatus 

 Pontoppidan. 



State records. — ^The herring gull is a common winter resi- 

 dent on the Gulf coast and in the bays and harbors from. 

 November to March, and a few remain till May or June. It 



tBrown, N. C, A iist of birds observed >t Coosada, central Alabama: Bull, Matt. 

 Omith. Club, vol. 4, p. IS, 1879. 



*Bent, A. C. BulL 107, V. S. Nat. Uus., p. 68, 1(19. 

 fAudnbon, J. J., Omith. Bioe., yoh 4, p. 62, 1888. 



