LIFE HISTOKIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOM^I,. 7 



where wo could hear distinctly more youug ducks peeping in the hole. Looking up 

 we saw one tottering on the edge, and before we could take stations where we could 

 properly observe the actual drop he had struck the ground close to my frietid and 

 made sucli rapid progress toward the water that ho escaped in spite of landing neta. 

 In a tew seconds another, which proved to bo tiie last, followed, falling on the other 

 side of the tree, and I promptly made him captive. The first bird was in the water 

 and had immediately dived. It is strange that he should have known enoiigh to seek 

 the water, and also to dive immediately. 



After a day or two of rest in the nest, probably longer in tree nests 

 than in those on the ground, the young have dried off their down 

 and gained sufficient strength to take to the water, where they are 

 very precocious. The downy young are very handsome and attrac- 

 tive. It is a beautiful sight to see a female merganser swimming in 

 the clear calm water of some mountain lake or wilderness stream, where 

 the mirrored reflections of picturesque scenery and forest trees make 

 a s[)lendid setting for the picture of a sAviftly gliding, graceful duck 

 follov/ed by a ]:)rocession of pretty httle balls of down, with perhaps 

 one or two of them riding on her back. If danger threatens she 

 quickens her pace, but the little fellows are good swimmers and keep 

 right at her heels ; even if she dives they can follow her under water, 

 working their httle paddles vigorously and darting along like so 

 many fish. If too hard pressed she rises and flaps along the surface, 

 half flying: they can almost keep up with her at this pace, for they 

 can run along the surface as fast as we can paddle our canoe. They 

 soon become exhausted with some exertion, so she leads them into 

 some sheltered cove, where they can run up on the shore and hide in 

 the grass, or even up into the thick woods, where it is almost hopeless 

 to hunt for them; it is surprising to see how quickly the young and 

 even the mother bird can disappear. Millais (1913) relates the fol- 

 lowing interesting incident : 



When rushing down the swift rivers of Newfoundland in my canoe, I have often 

 wondered at the resource or natural instinct of the broods of goosander and their 

 mothers which remain perfectly still when suddenly confronted with danger. As 

 the little boat flies down a rapid, swiftly passing silent pools in the rock eddies at 

 the sides, I have often turned my head and noticed a female goosander and her 

 nearly full-grown young. On a lake or open stretch of the river, knowing that con- 

 cealment was impossible, the mother would have dashed out in the open, and either 

 hurried by flapping along the surface to the middle of the lake, or. in the case of the 

 river, downstream, and so endeavor to (>scape When suddenly confronted within 

 a few yards in the eddies of the rapids, she felt that such a method of escape waa 

 useless, and with swift intuition remained perfectly still, each member of the brood 

 keeping the neck held stiflly, so that the whole party looked like the stiff twigs of 

 an upturned tree. This sudden assimilation to surroundings, so wonderfully exhib- 

 ited in the common or little bittern amid the rushes, seems to be a natural instinct 

 in all birds, and they often adopt it as a last resort. 



Plumages. — Downy young mergansers are beautiful creatures; the 

 upper parts, including the crown^. down to the lores and eyes, hind 



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