62 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



indicate a greater decrease, except in certain localities in Maine 

 and New York. Since spring shooting was prohibited this large 

 INIerganser has become more common in our rivers in March 

 than it was before. Along the sea-shore in fall and spring it 

 is much less numerous than the Red-breasted Merganser, but 

 as soon as the ice goes out of some of the ponds near the sea 

 in the southeastern counties considerable numbers sometimes 

 frequent such j)onds. 



According to Audubon this Sheldrake formerly bred in 

 Massachusetts. It has been occasionally seen here in sum- 

 mer within the last fifty years, but it is impossible now to 

 determine with certainty whether the young birds seen in the 

 breeding season were of this species or of the Red-breasted 

 Merganser. Howe and Allen regard it as possible that the 

 bird may still breed here, and Mr. Robert O. Morris states 

 that he has seen it repeatedly in midsummer in Hampden 

 County. 



The nest is usually made in a hollow tree, but probably 

 sometimes on the ground, as in treeless arctic regions. 

 Boardman, who found the first recorded nest in a hollow 

 tree in Maine, says that the lumbermen told him that the 

 mother carried the young to the water in her bill. Probably 

 this species nested here not uncommonly in earlier times, but 

 has been driven out by the destruction of the forests and 

 unrestricted shooting. 



Mergansers are tough and hard to kill. A wounded bird 

 will often elude the most determined pursuit of the sportsman. 

 It is an excellent diver, and swims so rapidly and so far under 

 water that it can keep well out of range of its pursuers. 



Its food is largely fish, and it sometimes swallows a fish too 

 large for the stomach, and retains it in the gullet until diges- 

 tion gradually disintegrates the head and later the entire fish. 

 Knight states in his Birds of Maine that the adult birds feed 

 exclusively on fish in the ponds of the interior, preferably, as 

 far as he has been able to ascertain, on the various chubs and 

 minnows. In winter on the coast, he says they eat many 

 mussels and allied mollusks, swallowing the shells, which are 

 ground up and disintegrated in the stomach and intestines. 



