Eed-breasted Merganser 33 



nest is generally placed in a hollow tree, sometimes on 

 the ground ; it is constructed of moss and leaves and 

 lined with do\vTi, plucked from the parents' breast ; 

 the eggs, usually ten, though as many as fourteen have 

 been found, are oval and pale bufEy to white in colour ; 

 they measure 2-65 x 1*78. 



Red-breasted Merganser. Mergus senator. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 129 — Colorado Records — Ridgway 79, p. 234 ; 

 Thorno 87, p. 264 ; Morrison 89, p. 148; Cooke 94, p. 183 ; 97, pp. 53, 

 194; Henderson 03, p. 234; 09, p. 225; Cary 09, p. ISO. 



Description. — Male— Head (with a long thin occipital crest) and upper - 

 neck all round, black glossed with green ; back black, becoming greyish 

 on the rump and tail ; wings chiefly white on the siu-face but the prim- 

 aries black ; below including the lower-neck all round, except for a 

 dorsal dark line, white ; a patch of reddish -brown streaked with dusky 

 on the breast ; iris, bill and feet red. Length 24 "0 ; wing 9"0 ; tail 4'0 ; 

 culmen 2-20; tarsus TG. 



The female and young have the crown greyish -brown, becoming 

 more rufous on the sides and neck ; rest of the upper-parts slaty, the 

 white wing -patch much restricted ; below white ; wing about 8*5. 



Both sexes can be easily distinguished from M. americanus by 

 the position of the nostril, which is nearer the base of the bill instead 

 of about the middle of its length. 



Distribution. — The northern parts of both hemispheres ; in America 

 breeding from Alaska and Greenland south to Minnesota and New 

 Brunswick ; in winter south of these hmits to CaKfomia, the Gulf 

 and Cuba. 



The Red-breasted Merganser is a somewhat rare bird in Colorado, 

 but it occasionally winters at Barr, near Denver, and along the Platte 

 River ; it is more common on migration and has been recorded from 

 Fort Collins and Middle Park (Cooke), Boulder co. (Henderson) and 

 Fort Lyon by Thorne, probably all on migration. Gary reports he 

 saw a mounted specimen at La Veta which had been shot on a reservoir 

 near by. Hersey informs me he has seen this species with " flappers' 

 in July, on the Fraser Creek in Middle Park at about 7,500 feet, and 

 he believes that it breeds there. 



Habits. — The Red-breasted does not differ very much 

 from the American Merganser, except that the nest appears 

 to be generally placed on the ground though sheltered 



D 



