256 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 27. 



first individual observed that season, on Melville Sound, Mackenzie, 

 June 14, 1902.« 



J. Alden Loring reported seeing several on Spotted Lake, 15 miles 

 west of Lake Ste. Anne, Alberta, in August, 1895. In the summer of 

 1896 he found it common in suitable places along the trail between 

 Edmonton and the Rocky Mountains, and also noted it on the route 

 between Jasper House and Smoky River, August 20 to October 8. 



Gavia adamsi (Gray). Yellow-billed Loon. 



This handsome loon breeds along the northern border of the region 

 now under review, and occurs in migration on the larger bodies of 

 water in the interior, from Athabaska Lake northward. 



I observed this species but once — on the Mackenzie, a few miles 

 above the mouth of the Nahanni, October 15, 1903. During my stay 

 at Fort McPherson in July, 1901:, I was informed by an Indian, who 

 spoke English and described the species accurately, that he had seen 

 one on a lake near the post, July 8. At Ha}^ River, Great Slave 

 Lake, it is frequently shot in May, w^hen the ice begins to break up, 

 but it is less often seen at Fort Resolution. Two mounted specimens, 

 taken at Fort Providence some years ago, are in the Hudson's Bay 

 Company museum at Fort Simpson. 



The first specific reference to this species as an inhabitant of the 

 Mackenzie region, and one of the first appearances of the bird in lit- 

 erature, is Franklin's mention of it from Fort Enterprise, late in 

 October, 1820, as follows: 



The last of the water fowl that quitted us was a species of diver, of the same 

 size with the Cohjmbus arcticiis, but differing from it in the arrangement of 

 the white spots on its plumage, and in having a yellowish white bill. This bird 

 was occasionally caught in our fishing nets.^ 



Ross was the next to detect it in the region, shortly after the bird 

 had been formally described, referring to it as abundant on Great 

 Slave Lake, and as having been collected at Fort Simpson.^' Under 

 the name Colymhiis glacialis J. C. Ross records three loons, which 

 his description shows were of this species, obtained about Boothia 

 during John Ross's second voyage.'^ Baird, Brewer, and RidgAvay 

 record specimens from Fort Resolution, Big Island, Fort Rae, Fort 

 Simpson, Fort Norman, and Peel River,^ and MacFarlane says it 

 abounds during the season of reproduction in Franklin and Liver- 

 pool bays.'' He informs me that a fine example was killed by an 



« Sport and Travel in Northland of Canada, p. 162, 1904. 



b Narrative Journey to Polar KSea, p. 247, 1823. 



^Nat. Hist. Rev., II (second series), p. 289, 1862. 



^ Appendix to Ross's Second Voyage, p. xlii, 1835. 



«^ Water Birds N. A., II, p. 462, 1884. 



t Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIV, p. 416, 1891. 



