26 BULLKTIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL .MfSKUM. 



are hatched, and Dr. P. L. Hatch (1892) says ho has seen it done; he 

 writes : 



In one instance, a lady sliaring my interest in birds and j,rame, while rowing with 

 me, noticed what we supposed to be a wood duck carr3-ing her chick by the neck from 

 a tree into the water. We waitdl in vain some time to see if the bird would not bring 

 another young one. Reaching the middle of the small lake, we saw the duck, by the 

 aid of the field glass, resume the loving task and discovered the l)ird to be a female of 

 the species under consideration. 



I suspect, however, that this instance was exceptional and that the 

 usual method of ])recedure is for the mother to coax the young to 

 climb up the edge of the cavity and then drop down into the water, or 

 onto the soft ground, if circumstances are favorable, as is customary 

 with most tree-nesting ducks. Their little bodies are so light and so 

 elastic that the fall does not hurt them. Audubon (1840) says: 



The affectionate mother leads her young among tall rank grasses which fill the 

 shallow pools or the borders of creeks and teaches them to procure snails, tadpoles, 

 and insects. 



Mr. E. A. Samuels (1883) writes: 



When the female is suddenly surprised, while with her young in a stream or pond, 

 she gives a guttural, chattering cry, when the whole brood dives and swims off under 

 the water to the shore, where they conceal themselves in tlie aquatic herbage. While 

 they are thus retreating, the mother simulating lameness, almost exactly like some of 

 the shore birds on the beach, flutters before the intruder, using every artifice to decoy 

 him from the neighborhood of her young, when she takes wing and flies off. If, 

 however, she has sufficient notice of the approach of a person before he reaches gun- 

 shot she swims rapidly off, with lier whole l)rood paddling behind her, until she turns 

 a point or neck in tlie pond or stream whore she happens to be, wlien, silently creeping 

 into shore, she, with her brood, liides herself in tlie herbage on the land until the 

 danger is past. When about two-thirds grown, these young mergansers, like the young 

 of most of the other fowls, are excellent eating. They are called " flappers" because 

 of their habit of flapping tlieir wings on the water to aid their escape from pursuers. 



Plumages. — The downy .young is thickly and ^^'armly clothed with 

 soft down in deep, rich shades of " bister " or "sepia " above, including 

 the upper half of the head, the hind neck, and the flanks; the sides 

 of the head, neck, and cheeks, up to the eyes, are " buff j)ink " or '' light 

 vinaceous cinnamon," the chin, throat, and under parts arc pure 

 white; and there is an obscure dusky band across the chest and an 

 indistinct white spot on each side of scapular region and rump. 



In the first plumage the sexes are alike and much resemble the 

 adult female, but they are browner on the back and have undeveloped 

 crests. Young males wear this immature ]>lumage all through the 

 first year, with only a slight change toward maturity during ths first 

 spring and the following summer. The summer molt leaves them 

 still in immature ]^lumage and with but little change in the new 

 wings, which still lack the pearl-gray lesser coverts and in which the 

 greater coverts are onlj' slightly white-tipped. In November and 



