1194 
They Must Haunt the Shore, for They Are Unable to Walk More Than Short 
Distances. 
“HA-HA!” THE LOON 
AS A BIRD OF MYSTERY AND 
SOLITUDE, IT REPAYS STUDY 
By Will C. Parsons. 
of which in a sportsmanlike manner requires 
more of true, keen sportsmanship and knowl¬ 
edge of woodcraft than the killing of a whole 
herd of deer or of almost any other game on 
the list of protected animals? 
Arkansas makes the open season on bear from 
November II to January n. Louisiana from 
November I to February i, Pennsylvania from 
October 15 to December 16, Mississippi from 
December 15 to February 1, and Quebec from 
August 20 to July 1. These are good laws in 
their ways, and they should be duplicated in 
every other state where bruin finds a home, 
and he would find a home almost every place 
if given reasonable protection, and would harm 
nobody. 
If one may judge from what I saw and heard 
when the bill for the repeal of the beai bounty 
clause in the game law was before the Com¬ 
mittee of Forestry, Fisheries and Game a few 
years pgo, there need be no fear entertained on 
the part of the people of this and other states 
that the cause of progress, of education or of 
the Sunday school will suffer by reason of its 
being wiped off the statute books. The sort of 
people who were whining for the retention of 
the bounty was one of the best arguments for 
its abrogation, and the members of the com¬ 
mittee were convinced that parties who slaugh¬ 
tered infant bears for the sake of a paltry bounty 
were not the proper persons to intrust with 
the framing or our game laws Not one recog¬ 
nized Adirondack guide asked for its retention; 
all were apparently in favor of wiping it off 
the statute books. 
One rather facetious individual, formerly a 
guide, who appeared in favor of the bill for 
abolishing the bounty, remarked that it could 
not be truly said that the state was the loser 
in the bounty transaction, as the bounty money 
when received was usually converted into rum, 
the rum into “drunks,” and that most of the 
money came back in the way of fines and could 
be used again in payment of other bounties. 
Since the bill was enacted into law there has 
been no particular incentive to the class named 
to slaughter infantile bears, but these and their 
dams as well at certain periods should receive 
protection from the rapacity of that other class 
of “smart Alecks” who persist in killing every¬ 
thing in sight “just for the fun of the thing.” 
All this twaddle relative to bruin being an 
habitual sheep stealer, man eater, etc., is the 
veriest sort of rot. 
Our black bear from an economic, as well as 
from the sportsman’s viewpoint, is a valuable 
animal and as such should be protected, allow¬ 
ing a reasonable open season. He is at present 
none too numerous. 
The killing of “baby” bears such as those 
shown in the picture, should, from a humane 
standpoint if no other, be prohibited at all times. 
Let us have a reasonable, practical close 
season for bruin and for all other valuable fur 
bearers, with absolute protection for the young 
of each species; also eliminate so far as pos¬ 
sible the use of that horrid engine of torture 
and destruction, the steel trap. 
M. Schenck. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
A SPARKLING, emerald-like bit of water, 
surrounded by giant pines. Deep little bays, 
the shores lined with rushes, and the bo¬ 
soms studded with the countless stars of the 
white pond-lilies. 
Above, an almost cloudless sky, and a few 
herring gulls from the big lake, miles away, 
wheeling and screaming. Otherwise, a perfect 
quiet. 
On the big pads of the lilies, bull frogs nap; 
a pickerel feeds in the shallows, and gaudy 
dragon-flies dart and scintillate through the 
warm air. 
From deep in the woods comes the staccato 
of the ivory-billed wood-pecker as he gouges 
great chips from a dead pine, and turns his head 
from side to side, listening for the creak of the 
pursued beetles. A canoe drifts in from the 
lake, like a leaf wafted over the surface of a mill 
pond. A doe, feeding on the succulent roots of 
the yellow lily lifts her head, and is gone like 
the fading of a light-struck negative. 
Still the picture unfolds' a miniature island¬ 
like mass of rounded vegetable matter rocks in 
the rushes, though there is no breeze; and the 
ever-widening ripples chasing themselves in 
growing circles, show to the observing eye 
that something, silent as the stab of a needle, 
has entered the water from the circular and 
quivering mass of woven and twisted water 
plants. 
Seconds pass; silence; and then, far out on 
the bosom of the parent lake comes the hys¬ 
terical, weird and demoniacal “laughter” of 
“Ha-Ha,” the loon. 
A quick dip of the paddle and the birchen 
vessel slips alongside the little “island.” There, 
in a sodden mass of reeds, with a drier hollow 
above, lie two big chocolate-colored eggs, the 
pride of the Great Northern Diver, whose cries 
ring so roundly from the waters beyond. 
“Ha-Ha” has long ago seen our approach, and 
quietly slipped away. Try as we might, we were 
never able to see the mother on the nest. Like 
a wraith, she vanished: always followed the 
burst of laughter. Through the field glasses, we 
sometimes, later on, saw “Ha-Ha” and one of 
her birdlings sport, dip and dive in the little 
bay. The second egg never hatched. 
The loon is a peculiar bird. Its legs are set 
far back on its body, and it has great difficulty 
in making headway on the - ground. It can fly, it 
is true, but can only rise when the wind is 
strong, and it can get the leverage, that any boy 
who flies a kite can explain. Sometimes, after 
dropping down into a little hidden, tree-sur¬ 
rounded lake, a loon will be caught for days 
before he can rise. The birds are solitary and 
seem to like, a pair to themselves, a single lake. 
The Esquimaux call the bird “loom”—i. e., lame. 
But on the water: that is where “Ha-Ha” and 
her friends show to the best advantage. Of all 
the divers, they seem supreme. Dodging the 
coming of danger, they swim for long distances 
under water, using their feet for paddles, and 
their wings for oars, and suddenly “pop up” 
to the surface, sending forth their unearthly cries. 
The young do not get their full adult plum¬ 
age possibly until the second or third year, but 
their powers of diving are apparent from the 
earliest. In flight they are steady, and if neces¬ 
sary they can go long distances. When they 
alight, they come down in a long slant, making 
more or less disturbance in the water, espe¬ 
cially if no danger threatens. 
They cry just before a storm, and the Lake 
Superior fisheimen begin to head for shore when 
“Ha-Ha” begins to scream. 
As food, the loon is not to be sought after. 
As a bird of mystery and solitude, study it! 
AN ALBINO WOODCHUCK. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Your readers who are interested in albino 
animals will find the following clipping worth 
a record: 
Ernest L. Gamble, living on a farm between 
Smithville and Henderson, brought to Water- 
town a rare curiosity in the shape of a white 
woodchuck. He dug the animal out of his hole 
recently, digging in about 12 feet. The animal 
is almost a perfect albino, being entirely white 
with the exception of a small fawn colored spot 
on his nose, and a dark streak in his tail. His 
eyes are pink, like those of a Belgian hare. 
Mr. Gamble took the chuck to the Barnes show 
in hope of selling it. John D. Whish. 
Albany, August 26, 1916. 
