Predatory Habit of the Loon. 195 



bark, which, however, gained steadily on them, until the 

 male rose and flew towards an islet, thinking perhaps that we 

 should follow him. Then, as matters began to look desperate, 

 the female, unable to remain longer, began alternately to 

 swim away, and to face us, until, fairly driven to extremity, 

 she raised her graceful piebald figure like a mermaid, and, half 

 flying, half treading on the surface, and at the same time 

 splashing the water with her wings like the paddles of a steam- 

 boat, shot along for some fifty yards, and alighted, uttering 

 louder and wilder cries, as with desperate struggles she essayed 

 to entice the fledgling to follow. Just as my gun was being 

 raised, she got up, and again beating the water for some dis- 

 tance, gradually rose higher, and flew away disconsolate to 

 join her mate. We then set to work to capture the chick, but 

 soon found it was much too agile, as every time the skiff 

 approached it dived under water, reappearing some ten or 

 twenty yards off. Once it popped up its head by the side of 

 the canoe, and I made an attempt to seize it, when down head- 

 foremost shot the little creature, and I could discern its form 

 far below us. 



The trappers and fishermen on many of the lakes com- 

 plain of the depredations of the loon among the fish in stake 

 nets. I was informed by my friend Captain Wolseley, 

 of the 22nd regiment, that during an excursion to the Sciff 

 Lake, in the upper Schoodic waters, where the great spotted 

 togue and silvery salmon trout are plentiful, his attention 

 was directed by a trapper to numbers of mutilated trouts in 

 nets, supposed to have been attacked by either otters or large 

 individuals of the former fish, which is the Salmo ferox of the 

 lakes of New Brunswick. At length several northern divers 

 were seen regularly in the vicinity, and finally the mystery 

 was solved by one being caught in the meshes of the net. 



The Reptiles of New Brunswick are neither numerous nor 

 formidable. None of the serpents seem to be poisonous, 

 provided that the Rattlesnake is not found within our limits, 



