ii8 THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER 



echoes of the lake are kept alive with sounds por- 

 tentous of new departures in the Loon world. Then 

 a peculiar object is seen to emerge from the marshy 

 bay and cross under the shadowy Cedars toward the 

 open water. A field-glass shows it to be the mother 

 Loon and her two offsprings, the three huddled so 

 closely together that they are almost indistinguishable. 

 The mother is unceasing in her care and attention. 

 She strokes the backs of the young birds with her 

 bill, playing and fussing around and close to them, as 

 if they could not exist without her constant attention. 

 Now and then she leans over and lifts a broad, black, 

 webbed foot out of the water, holding it up distended, 

 as if to endorse the modern theory that the parent 

 Loon teaches her young to swim. They cling to each 

 other and cling to her, as if afraid of being lost in 

 the great expanse of water to which they have been 

 so recently introduced. 



A short distance away the father swims about in 

 lordly indifference, diving occasionally and regaling 

 himself on unsuspecting fish. A boat comes out from 

 the shore, rowed by an industrious guide, with an 

 angler, picturesquely protected by a mosquito net, 

 sitting in the stern. The mother Loon pushes and 

 urges her indolent pair in the direction of safety. 

 How slow they must seem as she hurries and en- 

 courages them ! The trio moves at a snail's pace 

 compared with her ordinary speed, and they show no 



