LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 15 



The drakes, in their eagerness, often rush through the water with 

 slightly opened wings making the water foam about them. Again 

 they rise in the water with wings close to the side until they almost 

 seem to stand on tip-toe. 



Nesting. — The nest of the red-breasted merganser is built on the 

 ground, and, although the bird is marine in its haunts, the nest is 

 generally situated in the borders of fresh-water ponds, pools, or rivers, 

 often, however, in close proximity to the seacoast. Occasionally it 

 is found on the shore of the ocean itself or on coastal islands. The 

 bird also breeds throughout the interior at long distances from the 

 sea. According to Macoun (1909) " it does not breed in the prairie 

 region, but prefers the clear lakes and streams of the north." The 

 nest is generally built within 25 yards of the water. 



The nest, although sometimes built in the open, is generally placed 

 under some shelter, as the overhanging and prostrate branches of 

 dwarfed spruces, firs, or willows, or among the roots of trees or in a 

 pile of driftwood, and is so well concealed and the female lies so close 

 that the intruder often nearly steps into the nest before he is aware 

 of its presence. Macfarlane (1908) mentions a nest near the Ander- 

 son River " on the border of the ' Barrens ' to the east, under a fallen 

 tree, close to a small lake. It was a scooped-out hole lined with 

 feathers and down, and it contained six eggs. " 



[Author's note: The red-breastod merganser breeds abundantly 

 in the Magdalen Islands, Quebec, where numerous nests have been 

 found by others, as well as by me. An island near Grosse Isle, 

 known as Seal Island, is a famous breeding resort for this species. 

 It is a high island of red sandstone, nearly covered with a dense 

 forest of spruces and firs, under which the nests are concealed. A 

 typical nest, shown in the accompanying photograph, was located in 

 the thick woods, about 1 rod from the edge and about 40 yards from 

 the shore; it was perfectly concealed under a dense thicket of balsam 

 firs and would never have been discovered except that we saw the 

 bird fly out and a few pieces of down indicated where to look. The 

 nest was a hollow in the ground, profusely lined with gray down and 

 a few white breast feathers; it measured 14 by 12 inches in outside 

 and 8 by 7 inches in inside diameter. Several pieces of dry egg 

 membrane in the nest suggested the idea that it might have been 

 used the previous season also. It contained eight fresh eggs on June 

 21, 1904. 



On the previous day we had found a nest of this species in a very 

 different situation, on what is locally known as the Gully Flats, a 

 long stretch of beaches and sand dunes with numerous marshy or 

 grassy hollows scattered among the sand hills. The nest was in one 

 of these small marshy hollows, which was overgrown with coarse 

 sedges or marsh grasses; it was well concealed in the thickest grass 



