A Red-throated Loon on Chestnut Hill Reservoir, Boston, Mass.— 
In the early afternoon of February 7, 1918, while I was observing the ducks 
on Chestnut Hill reservoir, a bird came on the wing from the westward 
which upon alighting on the water was seen to be a Red-throated Loon 
('Gavia stellata). After taking its bearings for a few minutes, it began to 
swim and dive in the ample area of open water about the intake, which 
♦even during the very severe weather of the present winter has been of 
considerable extent, affording a wintering place for Mergansers, Black 
Ducks, a few Golden-eyes, and recently a Ruddy Duck. At the time the 
sky was clouded, wind northeast, and the temperature about 24°. Two 
days later Mr. Barron Brainerd with Mr. Talbot found this loon still 
present. But when I visited the reservoir on the 11th, it was not there. 
The area of open water had been diminished almost half by a formation 
of thin ice around its borders and had become, perhaps, inadequate to the 
loon’s sense of sufficiency. I am informed that Mr. Talbot noted the 
absence of this loon on the 10th. 
This was my first record of a Red-throated Loon on a pond, lake, or 
reservoir. I find that Mr. William Brewster reports but one occurrence 
in his ‘Birds of the Cambridge Region’ [1906], that of a young male shot 
in Fresh Pond by Mr. Ruthven Deane on October 21, 1871. The species is 
not uncommon in winter along the seacoast of New England, and in its 
fall migration is rather common. Dr. C. H. Townsend in his ‘Birds of 
Essex County’ [1905] states, “The Red-throated Diver is a lover of salt 
water, very rarely, in Essex County, entering the fresh-water ponds and 
rivers.” Dr. J. C. Philips in an article on ‘Ten Years of Observation on 
the Migration of Anatidse at Wenham Lake, Massachusetts,’ (Auk, vol. 
XXVIII, April, 1911, p. 197) says concerning the Red-throated Loon, 
“Rare in the pond. The only specimen in my collection is a female 
marked Wenham Lake, October, 1906.” Dr. Glover M. Allen in ‘Birds of 
New Hampshire’ [1903] gives two records of individuals taken in the 
interior of the State in the autumns of 1876 and 1886 respectively, and 
states that “Mr. G. H. Thayer has noted, it as a rare autumn visitant to 
Dublin Pond.” Mr. Thayer (Auk, Vol. XXI, October, 1904, p. 493) 
gives a record of two seen in Dublin Pond “during a long and heavy north¬ 
easterly storm which ended on October 12 or 13, 1903.” Mr. Ora W. 
Knight in his ‘Birds of Maine [1908] says, “Occasional specimens are 
reported about the ponds and lakes in fall, or more rarely in spring.” 
Messrs. Sage, Bishop and Bliss in ‘Birds of Connecticut’ [1913] state 
concerning the species, “very rare inland,” and then give two autumn 
records. 
So it would appear that in New England the Red-throated Loon’s 
appearances inland on bodies of fresh water have been rare, and that these 
appearances have all been in the autumn, with the exception of Mr. Knight’s 
testimony of occurrences in Maine under the expression “more rarely in 
spring.” The Chestnut Hill reservoir occurrence in February, therefore, 
seems to stand by itself as an incident not duplicated in New England, so 
far as an examination of records show. — Horace W. Wright, Boston, 
Mass ' /W-4,fl/VC XX*V/, 2r W-Zlp 
