GREAT NORTHERN" DIVER. 
167 
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 fin^ 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 
I 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 1824, 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 examin- 
ed in Labrador were placed on dry land, several yards from the water, and 
raised to a 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 re- 
sembling those made by the beaver, to which the hunters give the name of 
“ crawls.” The nest, wherever placed, is bulky, and formed of the vegetable 
substances found in the immediate vicinity, such as fresh or withered 
grasses and herbaceous plants. The internal part, or the true nest, ^hich 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. 
