On July 5, 1833, John Woodhouse Audubon and Thomas Lincoln collected a specimen of the Red-throated Diver (now called a loon) near Wapitiguan Harbor (see Plate 10). Whether Red-throated, Common (Plate 306), or Pacific (Plate 346), few endeavors would be more exasperating than hunting down a loon. John Woodhouse and Thomas Lincoln resorted to “tolling” to collect their specimen. Tolling for a loon starts with ducking for cover the instant a loon is spotted. If still undetected, a bright-colored hat or some other cloth is then hoisted and waved. To further entice a loon into range with guns “charged with large shot,” an imitation of the bird’s wailing calls are performed.
John James Audubon drew for Birds of America the male and female Red-throated loons that John Woodhouse and Thomas Lincoln collected. They also procured, if not in a crueler fashion than tolling, the young that appear in the drawing. The birds, “although quite small, were equally expert at diving. When swimming by the side of their mother they floated high, with the neck quite erect, while the old bird swam deep, with her neck inclined forward. When the little ones dived, they moved under the water like so many turtles, and at last were caught on the bottom of the pond, which was small and shallow, by placing the gun-rods upon them.”