WATER BIRDS 



warmer regions during the winter, but it 

 would seem as if some of the impatient suitors 

 w^ere unable to await the return of their part- 

 ners from the south, and must needs go and 

 fetch them. 



The red-breasted merganser has a spectac- 

 ular and distinctive courtship display, which 

 varies somewhat in its details but is essen- 

 tially as follows: the drake begins by stretch- 

 ing up his long neck so that the white ring 

 is much broadened, and the metallic green 

 head, with its long crest and its narrow red 

 bill, makes a conspicuous object. After a pre- 

 liminary bow, the bill is opened wide and the 

 bird stiffly bobs or teeters as if on a pivot, in 

 such a way that the breast and the lower part 

 of the neck are immersed, while the tail and 

 the back part of the body swing upward. This 

 motion brings the neck and head from a ver- 

 tical position to an angle of forty-five degrees. 

 All the motions are stiffly executed, and sug- 

 gest a formal but ungraceful courtesy. When 

 the bill is opened, a loud, rough or purring 

 and slightly double note is emitted, a note that 

 remains long in the memory after one has 

 heard it repeated over and over again by a 

 number of merganser suitors, 



145 



