BLACK-THROATED LOON. 
391 
The aborigines, nearly as superstitious as sailors, dislike to 
hear the cry of the Loon, considering the bird, from its shy 
and extraordinary habits, as a sort of supernatural being. By 
the Norwegians its long-drawn howl is, with more appearance 
of reason, supposed to portend rain. Judging, however, from 
the young bird already mentioned, this expression, like that 
of other fowls, indicated nothing beyond the humble wants or 
social communication of the species. 
The flesh of the Loon is dark, tough, and unpalatable ; yet 
the young birds are frequently seen in the markets of New 
York and Boston, and are therefore no doubt sometimes eaten. 
Some of the Russian Tartars on the Ob and the Irtisch tan 
the breasts of this and other water- fowl, preserving the down 
upon them, and sewing them together, sell them for garments 
and caps. The Greenlanders, as well as the aborigines round 
Hudson Bay and on the banks of the Columbia River, em- 
ploy their skins as articles of dress or of decoration ; and the 
Indians of the Missouri and Mississippi also often ornament 
the sacred calumet with the brilliant neck-feathers of this and 
other species. 
The Loon is found throughout this Eastern Province, breeding 
from about latitude 42° to the Arctic Ocean. It winters south to 
the Gulf of Mexico. 
BLACK-THROATED I.OON. 
Urinator arcticus. 
Char. Prevailing color above black, varied with white ; head grayish 
brown ; chin and throat black, with a patch of short white streaks ; 
streaks of white on side of neck ; under parts white. Length about 26 
inches. 
On the bank of an island lake, — a hollow stamped in the moss, 
sparingly lined with grass, or sometimes a floating mass of coarse herb- 
age covered with moss and sedge. 
Usually 2 ; brown of an olive or russet tint, and marked with 
dark brown; average size 3.25 X 2.10. 
This species, common to the hyperboreal parts of both 
continents, is much more rare in the United States than the 
