LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 5 



rise to the nest. The entrance to the hole was 6 inches by 12, and the inside dimen- 

 sions 4 feet lone, 2 feet deep, and IS inches high. The nest was about 1 foot in diam- 

 eter, of down mixed with moss, one-half inch thick in the center and thicker around 

 the edges. 



Eggs. — The American merganser raises but one brood in a season 

 and lays from 6 to 17 eggs; some vs-riters say that it lays from 6 to 

 10 eggs, but I think these small sets must have been incomplete or 

 second attempts; I should say that the commonest numbers would 

 run between 9 and 12, but I have personally taken sets of 15 and 10. 

 The eggs are usually distinctive, and typical eggs are not easily mis- 

 taken for anything else. The female is difficult to distinguish from 

 the female red-breasted merganser when she flies from the nest, 

 though she is a decidedly heavier looking bird and has more white 

 in the wings. The down, however, in the American merganser's nest 

 is much whiter than that in the nest of the red-breasted and the color 

 of the eggs is different. The down is grayish white in color, about No. 

 10 gray of Ridgway, or "pale gull gray," and it is usually mixed 

 V. ith nimierous pure white breast feathers and considerable rubbish 

 or bits of straw. The eggs of the American merganser are very pale 

 buff or "ivory yellow." The shell is thick and strong, with little, 

 if any, luster. The shape varies from elliptical ovate to elliptical oval. 



The measurements of 93 eggs in various collections average 84.3 by 

 44.9 milhmeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 73 by 

 46, 64 by 50, 55.4 by 38.5 and 56.7 by 37 millimeters. 



The drakes desert the ducks and usually disappear from the breed- 

 ing grounds entirely as soon as the eggs are laid, leaving the females 

 to perform the duties of incubation and care for the young alone. 

 In Newfoundland we saw only females on the lakes, where they were 

 busy with family cares, but we saw plenty of males on the swift- 

 water rivers, playing in the rapids and fishing in the pools. Several 

 observers in Maine have said that the males are not seen during the 

 summer, but this may be due to the fact that the males are in eclipse 

 plumage at this time and are very shy and retiring. Mergansers 

 which nest in hollow trees are usually very close sitters, and it is 

 often impossible to drive a sitting bird from her nest by pounding 

 the tree; on the other hand those which nest on the ground on islands 

 usually slip away long before the intruder reaches the vicinity of the 

 nest, often before a boat lands on the island; a deviation from either 

 of these habits would, in either case, tend to reveal the nest. Fresh 

 eggs, taken from incomplete sets in Manitoba and hatched in our 

 incubators, showed an incubation period of 28 days. 



Young. — ^Sevcral writers state that the young mergansers are car- 

 ried from a nest in a hollow tree to the water, in the bill of the parent 

 bird; Millais (1913) says that Mr. Oswin Ijee has seen a female goos- 

 ander carry down nine young ones out of the nest, and that she 



