This great Bird has been called a wanderer on the ocean. It is not only
found along the margins of the sea, fishing in the bays and at the river
banks, but is also met with out on the ocean many miles from the shore.
Narrow channels and sandy bays are, however, its favorite resorts; there
it floats, its body deeply submerged in the water. But though swimming
so deep in the water, it can overtake and shoot ahead of all the more
buoyant swimmers.
The Bird is sometimes known as the Loon. It is seldom found on the land,
being ill fitted for walking or flying, and although it is expert in
swimming long distances under water, and when it does come up seldom
exposes more than its neck, it flies rather better than many other
short-winged divers. It flies heavily, in a circle, round those who have
disturbed it in its haunts, its loud and melancholy cry resembling the
howling of a wolf, or the distant scream of a man in distress. When the
“Loon” calls frequently, it is supposed to portend a storm. In the bad
weather which precedes the advent of winter on the northern American
lakes, previous to migration, the wild weird note of the Loon is so
unnatural that the Indians ascribe to it supernatural powers.