20 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



the shore or in tidal estuaries. The gunner takes his station near at 

 hand in a blind made of brush or sea weed or sometimes of ice cakes, 

 and is most successful in the early morning when the birds are com- 

 ing in from their night's rest on the ocean. Gunning punts covered 

 with marsh grass are also used, but one must be a skillful sculler to 

 be able to approach within gunshot of the wary birds. Birds that 

 are merely winged are almost impossible to recover, as they are won- 

 derful divers and generally elude pursuit. They often swim away 

 with only the bill above water. 



Winter. — In the latter part of September in New England, the 

 species begins to arrive from the north and becomes exceedingly 

 numerous during October and November. In December the numbers 

 diminish, but it is one of our most abundant waterfowl on the Mass- 

 achusetts coast throughout the winter. In the spring migration of 

 March and April the numbers increase, but it is not until the last of 

 May, or even the first of June that they have all left for the north. 

 But the story of the migration of this bird is not so simple as the 

 above statement would imply, for there is a sexual as well as an age 

 difierence to be considered. The large flocks in the early fall appear to 

 be all in brown dress, and this is the dress not only of the females 

 and young but also of the adult males, who are then in the eclipse 

 plumage. In November this plumage is molted, and the males 

 appear resplendent in their courtship dress, while the females and 

 young of both sexes leave for the south, so that during the winter 

 months the vast majority are in full male plumage. Thus, one 

 January day, out of 500 sheldrakes off Ipswich Beach I could count 

 onl}- 6 in the dull plumage. Whether these were adult females or 

 young or both I cannot say. In March the females put in an appear- 

 ance and courting begins, and by the last of April and in May the 

 birds are largely paired, although flocks of either or both sexes are 

 common as well as those of immature males who have not molted into 

 full plumage are common. Some at least of the immature males 

 are slow in changing to adult plumage, and males in nearly complete 

 immature dress with only a few greenish feathers about the head 

 are often to be found in April and May. On the other hand, I have 

 seen a bird that was half molted into adult male plumage as early 

 as the 16th of February; tliis was probably an adult changing from 

 the eclipse plumage, the others immature birds. 



The southern side of this picture, which rounds out and corrobo- 

 rates my northern observations has been given me by Mr. William 

 Brewster, who says that in Florida, in winter, he has seen large 

 flocks of female and immature red-breasted mergansers, and by Mr. 

 Arthur T. Wayne (1910) who, says of this species : 



From the time when these fish-eating ducks arrive until the first week in February, 

 the adult drakes are seldom, if ever, seen, but toward the second vreek in February 

 they make their appearance in large niunbers. 



