April 18, 1804
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April 18, 1804

 

Wednesday 18th April 1804.    a fair morning.    Newmon Killed a Black Lune [Loone?]. [1] Vegetation appears to be Suppriseingly rapid for a fiew days past, R F [Reubin Field? Robert Frazer?] Killed a muskrat. [2] Several of the inhabitents Came to Camp to day. Majr runseys boat fall down one mile to river    Com to Carry to the Salt works. I send Sergt. Floyd & G Shannon with two horses to Capt. Lewis at St. Louis, at 3 oClock Capt Lewis arrive.    the wind from the S. E.    rained the greater Part of this night.

1. There is no American loon that is predominately black. Probably it is the double-crested cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus [AOU, 120], although the common loon, Gavia immer [AOU, 7], is dark gray on its head and back in winter. Less likely this could be the widely distributed American coot, Fulica americana [AOU, 221], although the captains later refer to that species as a "black duck" (November 30, 1805, and March 10, 1806). Burroughs, 224–25. (back)
2. Ondatra zibethicus. Hall, 2:824–28. (back)