318 NEW-YORK FAUNA BIRDS. 



THE BUFF-BREASTED SHELDRAKE. 



Mergus merganser, 

 plate cx1x. fig. 264. 



Mergus merganser, LlNNiEUS, p. 208 (male); caster, p. 209 (female). 



Goosander, Pennant, Arct. Zool. Vol. 2, p. 537. 



M. merganser. Wilson, Am. Orn. Vol. 8, p. 68, pi. 68, fig. 1 (male) ; fig. 2 (female). Richardson, F. B. A. 



Vol. 2, p. 461. Bonaparte, Ann. Lye. Vol. 2, p. 397. Addueon, B. of A. Vol. 6, p. 387, 



pi. 411. Giraud, Birds of Long island, p. 339. 



Characteristics. Mirror white uninterrupted ; bill and feet red ; nostrils medial. Male, 

 black ; neck and beneath white ; head tufted, purplish green. Female, 

 cinereous; beneath white ; head rufous, tufted. Length, 26 "0. 



Description. Upper surface of the bill somewhat flattened ; height and breadth at base 

 subequal. Teeth triangular, acute, pointed backwards. Bill, measured from the frontlet, 

 2 "2. Feathers on the neck and head elongated, about 1*0 long. Tarsus compressed, 1*8 

 long. Inner secondaries elongated, tapering. Tail short, much rounded, of eighteen feathers : 

 upper tail-coverts long. 



Color. Male : Head and half the neck black, with glossy green reflections, more parti- 

 cularly on the nape. Lower part of the neck, ends of the greater coverts, external scapulars, 

 and all beneath of a beautiful cream-yellow or buff, which fades to white in cabinet speci- 

 mens. Back, scapulars, humeral wing-coverts, spurious wing, narrow borders of the ter- 

 lials and quills black. Lower part of the back, rump, upper tail-coverts and tail ash : sides 

 of the rump white, waved with grey. Female : Crest more developed than in the male, 

 brownish red. Chin and throat pure white : lower part of the throat in front, sides of the 

 breast and flanks barred with grey and white. Beneath yellowish white. Above deep ash. 

 Outer webs of six of the secondaries, and tips of the coverts white, forming a large mirror. 

 Young of the year, resembling the female. Young male of the second year (fig. 264) : The 

 white throat and rufous neck becomes spotted with black : a streak of the same appears over 

 the eye. All above bluish ash ; the feathers darker in their centres. Quills and anterior se- 

 condaries black ; the coverts overlying the secondaries, black, broadly barred with white and 

 tipped with black, forming a dusky bar across the mirror. Beneath salmon or buff; the 

 flanks slate margined with whitish. Length, 26'0-28'0. 



This large species is known on our coast under the names of Sheldrake, Sawbill, and Dun 

 Diver. In Europe it is called the Goosander. It breeds throughout the interior from Penn- 

 sylvania northwardly. It appears along the coast in the autumn, and remains until late in 

 the winter, and some may be seen throughout the winter. The female is thought by our 

 sportsmen to be a distinct species, and is called Weaser, or Swamp Sheldrake. The eggs 

 are pale olive-white, tinged with buff. Its food consists of fish, aquatic reptiles, shells, cray- 

 fish, etc. Its geographical range extends from Mexico to 68° north latitude. Common on 

 both sides of the Atlantic. 



