284 GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 



delightful and peculiarly American autumnal season called the Indian sum- 

 mer; when, although not so much as a cloud was seen for weeks, I have 

 frequently observed the passing birds checking their flight, or heard the 

 murmuring plash which they produced on alighting upon the placid water, 

 to rest and refresh themselves. 



Another strange notion, not deserving of credit, although you will find it 

 gravely announced in books, is that, when the Loon is breeding, it will dart 

 down suddenly from the air, and alight securely in its nest. I have never 

 witnessed such a procedure, although I have closely watched, from under 

 cover, at least twenty pairs. On such occasions I have seen the incubating 

 bird pass over the dear spot several times in succession, gradually rounding 

 and descending so as at last to alight obliquely on the water, which it always 

 did at a considerable distance from the nest, and did not approach it until 

 after glancing around and listening attentively, as if to assure itself that it 

 was not watched, when it would swim to the shore, and resume its office. 



The Loon breeds in various parts of the United States, from Maryland to 

 Maine. I have ascertained that it nestles in the former of these States, on 

 the Susquehanna river, as well as in the districts between Kentucky and 

 Canada, and on our great lakes. Dr. Richardson states that it is found 

 breeding as far north as the 70th degree of latitude. The situation and form 

 of the nest differ according to circumstances. Some of those which breed in 

 the State of Maine, place it on the hillocks of weeds and mud prepared by 

 the musk-rat, on the edges of the lakes, or at some distance from them 

 among the rushes. Other nests, found on the head-waters of the Wabash 

 river, were situated on the mud, amid the rank weeds, more than ten yards 

 from the water. Authors have said that only one pair breed on a lake; but 

 1 have found three pairs, with their nests, on a pond not exceeding a quarter 

 of a mile in length, in the State of Maine. One that I saw after the young 

 had left it, on Cayuga Lake, in 1S24, was almost afloat, and rudely attached 

 to the rushes, more than forty yards from the land, though its base was laid 

 on the bottom, the water being eight or nine inches deep. Others examined 

 in Labrador were placed on dry land, several yards from the water, and 

 raised to the height of nearly a foot above the decayed moss on which they 

 were laid. But, in cases when the nest was found at any distance from the 

 water, we discovered a well-beaten path leading to it, and very much 

 resembling those made by the'beaver, to which the hunters give the name 

 of "crawls." The nest, wherever placed, is bulky, and formed of the vege- 

 table substances found in the immediate vicinity, such as fresh or withered 

 grasses and herbaceous plants. The internal part, or the true nest, which is 

 rarely less than a foot, and is sometimes fifteen inches, in diameter, is raised 

 upon the external or inferior mass to the height of seven or eight inches. 



