Great Northern Diver or Loon , ( Colymbustorquatus). 
A line specimen was brought to me alive to be stuffed, It 
was captured in a somewhat curious manner on Lake Wau- 
ramaug, Litchfield Co., Conn. Some fishermen observing 
him upon the lake, gave chase in a sail boat, and after some 
time they succeeded in coming up with him and taking him 
alive. He was brought to me from New Milford, a distance 
of nine miles, in the back end of an open buggy, untram¬ 
meled in any way, makinguo effort to escape. When taken 
from the wagon he gave utterance to two or three long, 
mournful cries, as if singing his own requiem. I could not 
discover that he was injured in any way, and am at a loss to 
account for his passive condition. Geo. C. Jones, Brookfield 
Center, Conn. Q, IX. JuH. 1884, P ,'Jtp. 
Much romancing is in print about Loons on •, 
fresh water ponds, and killing one is chron¬ 
icled as a great feat. The fine specimen on 
my study table was shot with a pistol at 
short range. They abound at salt water, and 
: their eerie cry is very common in Fisher’s 
Island Sound in .Tune. Flying over the duck 
blinds they are easily “downed.” Half a 
: dozen at a time are taken in the fish-traps with- 
' in twenty feet of the shore off Groton Long 
Point. The Loons drop into the traps after 
| the imprisoned fish, but in taking flight can¬ 
not get rise enough to clear the walls of the 
netting, f 
(0. i 3. XVI. 7-6o. 
