THE HOODED MERGANSER. 583 



alight on the bosom of the still pool. Up the creek thej- proceed, washing their bodies 

 by short plunges, and splashing the water about them. Now they dive for min- 

 nows, which they tind in abundance, and which no doubt prove delicious food to the 

 hungry travellers. At length, having satisfied their appetite, they rise on wing, fly over 

 the creek with almost incredible velocity, return to the broad stream, rove along its 

 margin, until tlicy nreet with a clean sand-beach, where they alight, and where, secure 

 from danger, they repose imtil the return of day. 



" This bird ranges throughout the United States during winter, content with the food 

 it meets with in the bays and estuaries of the eastern coast, and on the inland streams. 

 The dam of the Pennsylvanian miller is as agreeable to it as that of the Carolinian rice- 

 planter ; even the nmnerous streams and fords of the interior of the Fioridas are resorted 

 to by this species, and there I have found them full of life and gaiety, as well as on the 

 Missouri and on our great lakes. When the winter proves too cold for them they go 

 southwards, many of them removing towards Mexico. 



" The Hooded Merganser is a most expert diver, and so vigilant that at times it escapes 

 from the best j)ercussion-gun ; as to shooting at it with a_flint-lock, you may save yourself 

 the trouble, unless you prevent it from seeing the flash of the pan. If you wound one, 

 never follow it ; the bird, when its strength is almost exhausted, immerses its bodj', raises 

 the point of its bill above the surface, and in this manner makes its way among the plants, 

 till finding some safe retreat along thfe shore, it betakes itself to it and there remains, so 

 that j'ou may search for it in vain, unless you have a good dog. Even on wing it is not 

 easil}' shot. If on a creek ever so narrow, it will fly directly towards its mouth, although 

 you may be standing knee-deep in the middle. It comes up like a ball, rises and passes 

 overhead with astonishing speed ; and if you shoot at it, do not calculate upon a hit. 

 You may guess how many one may shoot in a day. 



" liike all the rest of the tribe, which, when far north, for the want of lioUow trees, 

 breed on the moss or ground, the hooded mergansers that remain with us nestle in the 

 same kind of holes or hollows as the wood ducks ; at least I have found their nests in 

 such situations seven or eight times, although I never saw one of them alight on the 

 branch of a tree, as the birds just mentioned are wont to do. They dive, as it were, di- 

 rectly into theii' wooden burrows, where, on a few dried weeds, and feathers of difl'ereut 

 kinds, with a small quantity of down from the breast of the female, the eggs are deposited. 

 They are from five to eight, measure one inch and three-fourths by one and three- 

 eighths, and in other respects resemble those of the red-breasted merganser. 



" The eggs are laid in May, and are hatched some time in June. The yoimg, like 

 those of the wood-duck, are convej'ed to the water by their mother, who carries them 

 gently in her bill ; for the male takes no part in providing for his offspring, but abandons 

 his mate as soon as incubation has commenced. The afiiectionate mother leads her young 

 among the tall rank grass which fills the shallow pools or the borders of creeks, and 

 teaches them to procure snails, tadpoles, and insects. On two occasions the parents would 

 not abandon the young, although I expected that the noises which I made would have 

 induced them to do so ; they both followed their offspring into the net which I had set 

 for them. The young all died in two daj"s, when I restored the old birds to liberty. 



" The hooded mergansers which leave the United States take their departure from th^ 

 first of JIarch to the middle of May, and I am induced to believe that probably one-third 

 of them tarry for the pvirpose of breeding on the margins of several of our great lakes. 

 When migrating, they fly to a great height, in small flocks, without any regard to order. 

 Their notes consist of a kind of rough grunt, variously modulated, but by no means mu- 

 sical, and resembling the syllables croo, croo, crooh. The female repeats it six or seven 

 times in succession when she sees her young in danger. The same noise is made by the 

 male, either when courting on the water^ or as he passes or rises near the hole where thd 

 female is laying one of her eggs." 



