' V 



h S*^"^ 



THE HOODED MERGANSER. 531 



when she takes wing, and flies off. If, however, she have 



sufficient notice of the approach of a person before he 



readies gunshot she swims rapidly off, with her whole brood 



paddling behind her, 



until she turns a 



point or neck in 



the pond or stream 



where she happens 



to be, when, silently 



creeping 'into shore, 



she, with her brood 



hides herself in the ^ 



herbage on the land 



until the danger is 



past. When about two-thirds grown, these young ]\Ier- 



gansers, like the young of most of the other fowls, are 



excellent eating. They are called " Flappers," because of 



their habit of flapping their wings on the water to aid their 



escape from pursuers. 



This species, in passing with its young from one body of 

 water to another, often, while flying, carries them singly in 

 its mouth ; and I have been told, that even after it has been 

 shot and has fallen to the ground, it not unfrequently holds 

 the chick. Mr. George A. Boardman informs me that the 

 female of the Summer Duck often encroaches on the nest 

 of this Merganser ; and he once witnessed an attempt of the 

 latter to drive the other from her domicile, of which she 

 had taken possession, and in which she was engaged in the 

 duties of incubation. He watched them, and noticed, that, 

 when the "Wood-duck left the nest, the Merganser took 

 possession of it ; and, when she left it, the other did the 

 same. 



