and bobber as first thought , but rather that

its movement had been inhibited by a large

spherical growth (5 em diameter) attached to

the middle toe of the right foot (Fig. I) . The

growth ' s surface was papillose, covered with

sand and algae, and quite odoriferous. The

growth was amputated at the distal joint,

weighed (61 g), frozen, and sent to the Na-

tional Wildlife Health Laboratory in Madi-

son, Wisconsin , for analysis. The tumor was

diagnosed as being of squamous cell origin

with a dense connective tissue core. It may

have been a carcinonma of low grade malig-

nancy , possibly of skin gland origin.

Most likely the tumor would have proved

fatal to the bird had it not been removed . The

bird's swimm ing movements were impaired

which would decrease feeding efficiency and

subsequently would cause deterioration in the

bird 's body condition. The tumor also would

have interfered with flight capability by drag-

ging and creating an unbalanced condition

during take-off. This could have stranded the

bird on its natal waters into freeze-up.

The loon was banded and released. Swim-

ming appeared to be normal after removal of

the tumor.

We thank Dr. Lynne M . Siegfried of the

National Wildlife Health Laboratory in Madi-

son for analysis of the tumor.

LITERATURE CITED

Fox, H. 1923 . Diseases in captive wild mam-

mals and birds. J. B. Lippincott Pub.,

Philadelphia, Penn . pp. 471-473.

Lindmeir, 1. P. and R. L. Jessen. 1961. Re-

sults of capturing waterfowl in Minnesota

by spotlighting. J. Wild!. Manage. 25 (4):

430-431.

Sanger, V. L. 1971. Tumors . In Infections

and parasitic diseases of wild birds, Davis

et. al. (eds.), Iowa State Univ . Press,

Ames, Iowa. pp. 319-322

Siegfried, L. M. 1983. Neoplasms identified

in free-flying birds. Avian Dis. 27 (1):

86-89.

*'Wetland Wildlife Populations and Research

Group, Minnesota Department ofNatura1 Re-

sources, 102-23rd St., Bemidji, MN 56601

2Nongame Wildlife Program, Minnesota De-

partment of Natural Resources, 315 Charles

St. N .W ., Brainerd , MN 56401

Proceedings of the Minnesota Ornithological

Records Committee

by Kim R. Eckert, M.O.R.C. Secretary

As reported in The Loon 57:34, this com-

mittee at its December 1984 meeting had

worked out a procedure for handling records

of possible escapes. However, before this

procedure was applied to any record , it was

clear that there would be flaws in it, and the

procedure was never implemented. Finally,

on February 15, 1986 , four members of

MORC met and proposed a new procedure

which will hopefully be more workable: I)

After a record is voted on and its identifica-

tion found Acceptable , if any member feels

the bird involved is an indivdual possibly

escaped or released from captivity, he indi-

cates this to the MORC Chairman . 2) If the

chairman agrees that the member's opinion

42

is worth pursuing he then has research con-

ducted into this possibility; the Chairman may

do this research himself or ask MORC mem-

bers to complete it. This research involves;

checking with game farms, zoos, falconers

(in the case of hawks) , Richard Ryan of New

Jersey (a recognized authority on birds kept

in collections; asking the observers of the

individual to report on the bird 's plumage

condition, behavior, presence of bands, and

other factors which might indicate captive

origin; checking to see if there were other

extra-limited records about the same time in

other states which might indicate a pattern

of vagrancy (sources might include American

Birds , journals and records committees from

The Loon Vol. 58