Red -Breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator) 



Range: Breeds from Arctic coast of Alaska, northern Mackenzie, Cum- 

 berland Sound, and Greenland (lat. 73°) south to southern British Columbia, 

 southern Alberta, southern Minnesota, central Wisconsin, northern New York, 

 and southern Maine ; winters in southern Greenland, Commander Islands, and 

 from southern British Columbia, Utah, Colorado, southern Wisconsin, southern 

 Ontario, and Maine south to southern Lower California, Louisiana and Florida. 



The red-breasted merganser is the second of our mergansers in size, and 

 while its habits in general correspond well with those of the larger goosander, 

 they differ in some important respects. The red-breast, for instance, frequents 

 salt water far more than its relative, though it, too, inhabits the interior lakes 

 and pounds. It swims and dives with wonderful skill, and in clear, rapid moun- 

 tain streams, even the swift and wary trout is not safe from its prowess. This 

 merganser used to breed rather commonly in New England, and it still nests in 

 the northern parts, though in diminished numbers. Apparently it never breeds 

 in hollow trees, but conceals its nest on the ground among rocks or bushes. 

 Like its larger relative, this duck does not "flock," and the little parties of five 

 or eight probably represent parents and young, which from motives of attach- 

 ment or safety, keep together. Eaton ascribes to this merganser a habit which 

 would argue unusual intelligence and co-operative ability. He says, "These 

 mergansers are often observed to hunt in company, a large flock sometimes 

 advancing with wide, extended front, driving the fish before them and diving 

 simultaneously, so that whichever way their prey may dart there is a serrated 

 beak and capacious gullet ready to receive them." 



JN4earn S CJuail {Cyrtonyx montezumae mearnsi.) 



Range : From central Arizona and central New Mexico east to central Texas, 

 and south to the mountains of northern Coahuila, Chihuahua, and eastern Sonora. 



Mearn's quail is a Mexican species which crossed our borders long before 

 there were political boundaries, and established itself in the low mountain ranges 

 of our western border States, where in time it changed somewhat from the parent 

 stock. Although I have spent considerable time in the country it inhabits, chiefly 

 in eastern Arizona, I never found it numerous, and though I searched persistently 

 only occasionally discovered a small covey. If I am to judge by my rather 

 limited experience, Mearn's quail is the tamest of its kind, and well deserves 

 the epithet of "fool quail" locally bestowed on it. So closely does the bird lie 

 after being once started that I found it almost impossible to flush one a second 

 time unless I marked it down to the foot. I have observed one sitting motionless 

 on a log by the side of the trail, within riding-whip distance of a passing mule 

 train, apparently so petrified with astonishment as to be incapable of motion. 



860 



