to catch two little chicks not over a week old “the mother 
passed under our boat several times, in like manner.” 
This corrobates Audubon. 
But here! I am occupying more space than the editor 
will willingly allow me for quoting authorities of the last 
century and I have hardly begun to write. If he will bear 
with me a little longer I will give an experience of some 
gentlemen now living. Captain Geo. H. Mackay R. A. F., 
an aviator in the late war and a son of Geo. H. Mackay, the 
veteran ornithologist of Boston and Nantucket, tells me 
that during the winter of 1920-1921 some Loons, unmoles¬ 
ted in the harbor of Nantucket, became very tame. As the 
water was exceedingly clear he was enabled to watch one 
fishing near the wharf sometimes at a distance of about 
20 feet. This bird seemed to be catching some small fish 
near the bottom and in this pursuit it continually used 
its wings. He found on taking up the matter with the 
fishermen that their observations agreed with his own. 
Mr. Bonnycastle Dale writes me that while searching 
for a Loon’s nest on Rice Lake, Ontario, he saw almost 
under the boat a “big white thing” which he at first 
thought was a fish. Then he saw that it was a big bird 
both wings “stroking swiftly.” Deciding that it was a 
Loon he and his companion paddled straight to shore about 
one hundred feet away and there found the nest with the 
eggs still warm as the bird had left them-. Later, on the 
same lake, while approaching the nest of another Loon, 
they saw the bird stretch out its neck, slide off the nest 
and swim directly under the canoe about two feet below 
the surface, using its wings, with legs and tail straight 
out behind, as he believes, for he could see no motion of 
the legs. The foregoing is offered in defense of my orig¬ 
inal statements, but there is much more to come in regard 
to Loons, Grebes and even Cormorants. 
During the past year an investigation in respect to these 
habits has been conducted from my office. The object of 
pursuing this inquiry is not, however, to corroborate my 
own statements but to determine if possible just how and 
42 
