HOODED iMERGANSER. 8 1 



parents, and join forces with other broods ; thus a single old 

 bird may be seen tending two or more families. 



The drake Merganser is an exceedingly handsome bird. 

 His head and neck are glossy green-black, his crest long and 

 tufted ; a line down the back of the neck passes through the 

 white collar to the black upper back, and the lower back and 

 flanks are finely pencilled with grey. The wings are black and 

 white, the white crossed by two black bars, and on the shoulder 

 is a patch of black and white feathers. Beneath the breast the 

 under parts are white. The bill and irides are red, the legs 

 orange. The duck has a brown head and neck, grey back, and 

 a bill duller than the drake, but red at its base. In eclipse dress 

 the drake shows more grey on breast and flanks than the duck. 

 Length, 24 ins. Wing, 9*5 ins. Tarsus, i'5 ins. The female 

 is rather smaller. 



Hooded Merganser. Lophodytes cuaUlahi^ (Linn.). 



The Hooded Merganser is a North Americai bird which in 

 winter has been met with so far south as Cuba. There are 

 more than a dozen records of its occurrence in Great Britain 

 and Ireland, but only four are generally accepted. The drake, 

 however, is so distinctive wiih his upstanding and outstand- 

 ing crest, white with a black margin behind the face, and 

 with two curved black marks on the side of his white breast. 

 that birds seen by reliable and experienced observers, even 

 though not shot, may be accepted. For instance, at the end 

 of March, 191 1, Prof. K. J. P. Orton saw a drake drifting on 

 the tide in the Menai Straits, and tells me that the hood and 

 markings were very distinct. It was in these Straits that 

 E\ ton, in the winter of 1830-31, obtained his historical specimen. 

 The drake swims with the crest fanned out, but Sir R. Payne- 

 Galhvey, who shot three in Ireland, says that a crippled bird 

 swam low *' with the crest laid flat and smooth." 



Scries II. G 



