File:The oist (1913) (14748527735).jpg

Identifier: oist30albi (find matches)
Title: The oist
Year: 1886 (1880s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: Albion, N.Y. : Frank H. Lattin
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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it takeswing and makes a long flight beforealighting. When on land the Loon is a veryackward fellow. He stands with hisbody erect and his tarsi usually rest-ing on the ground. He cannot walk,but progresses by tumbling forwardand flopping his wings and pushinghis feet in a most ungainly manner. It is asserted by the best authoritiesthat this bird can evade a gunshot bydiving at the flash, and I have nodoubt that this is true when blackpowder is used, but with a moderngun loaded with buck-shot there wasno trouble to secure a fine male onMuskoko Lake, in Canada, where theybreed quite abundantly. Our guidetold us that he never saw more than2 eggs in a nest, which is invariablynear the waters edge, so that you caneasily wade to the same. It is a meredepression in the rock or ground. The upper parts, wings, tail andneck black with bluish or greenishreflections, spaces on the side ofthe neck streaked with white;liack and wings spotted and bar-red with white; breast and belly THE OOLOGIST 277
Text Appearing After Image:
278 THE OOLOGIST white; sides around a band atthe base of the under-tail-covertsblack, spotted with white. The fe-male has none of those gorgeous col-ors, which proves that in all animallife for beauty the male is superior. The eggs are grayish, olive-brown,thinly spotted with blackish, size 3.50X 2.20. The young are covered witha soft down, sooty-brown in color andleave the nest as soon as hatched. What a fine group, a male and fe-male with the two young would makewhen given to our artistic taxiderm-ist, Mr. H. Grieb in Buffalo. Such agroup would equal those of the. GreatFIVE—OOLOGIST Blue Herons and theWhistling Swansin the Buffalo Society of Natural Sci-ences. The food of the Loon consists en-tirely of fish, which it catches byswimming after them beneath the sur-face of the water. In the early spring some can befound near Navy Island, above Niag-ara Falls and some have been seen inour Buffalo harbor near the newwater works before their northern mi-gration to their breeding places

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