BIRDS OF KANSAS. 51 



a common summer resident in the mountains within the United 

 States. The birds seem to prefer for their feeding grounds the 

 pools in the swift, shallow, rocky streams. They are expert 

 divers, and subsist cliiefly upon fish, and their flesh, like that of 

 all this family, tastes rather rank and fishy. 



The nests are placed in hollow trees and stubs; composed of 

 leaves, moss and grasses, and lined with down from the birds.* 

 Eggs usually eight to ten — as high as fourteen are said to have 

 been found, 2.65x1.78; pale buif or bufify white; in form, oval 

 to ovate. 



Merganser serrato (Linn.). 



RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 

 PLATE IV. 



Winter visitant; rare. 



B. 612. Ft. 637. C. 744. G. 301, 21. U. 130. 



Habitat. Northern portion of northern hemisphere; breeding 



from the northern United States to Greenland; south in winter 



throughout the United States. 



Sp. Char. ''Adult male: Head dull greenish black, duller and more brown- 

 ish on the forehead and throat, the crest faintly glossed with purplish; neck and 

 sides of the jugulum pale fawu color or dull buff, indistinctly streaked with black, 

 the streaks being on the edges of the feathers; a white collar around upper part 

 of neck, just below the black. Lower parts pure creamy white, the sides and 

 flanks undulated with narrow zigzag bars of black. Back and scapulars uni- 

 form black; shoulders overhung by a tuft of broad feathers, broadly margined 

 with black, the ceutral space being white. Anterior and outer lesser wing cov- 

 erts dark slate gray, darker centrally; posterior lesser coverts and middle coverts 

 wholly white; greater coverts with the terminal half white, the basal half black, 

 partly exposed, thus forming a narrow band or bar across the wing; two inner 

 tertials wholly black, the rest white, edged with black; inner secondaries en- 

 tirely white; outer secondaries, primary coverts and primaries black. Rump 

 and upper tail coverts dark ash gray, with black shafts centrally, finely mottled 

 laterally with white and black zigzags. Tail slate gray, with black shafts. 

 Bill deep carmine, the culmen black, the nail yellowish; iris carmine; feet bright 

 red. Adult female: Head and neck cinnamon brown, duller and more grayish 

 on the pileum and nape, the crest shorter than in the male; throat and lower 

 parts white; the sides and flanks ash gray. Upper parts dark ash gray, the 

 feathers with darker shafts; exposed portion of greater coverts and secondaries 

 white, the base of the latter black, but seldom showing as a narrow bar; prima- 

 ries black. Bill, eyes and feet as in the male, but less intense in color. Young: 

 Similar to the adult female, but chin and throat pale reddish instead of pure 



* All of the Duck family that line their nests with down pluck the same from their breasts, 

 chiefly after ihey begin to sit. 



