THE AMERICAN MERGANSER. 759 



duck cleaving the water with strong concerted strokes of his vermiHon feet. 

 In that Hmpid water the resplendent black of his head and the salmon-tinted 

 sides shone almost as if there was nothing between us. I am almost sorry to 

 add that his ruse was not successful, and that his skin now rests in an 

 eastern museum. 



Not only are these Mergansers expert divers, but the sharj) "teeth," 

 inclining backward as they do, are calculated to hold the most slipj)ery 

 prey. Fish caught in fair jjursuit form the bulk of their food, but frogs, 

 water insects, cray-fish, and other crustaceans, vary the monotony. Since 

 the taking of such prey depends primarily upon unimpeded eye-sight, it 

 goes without saying that these birds prefer clear waters and free course. 

 Hence, thev are more often found upon our ri\ers, even the swiftest 

 mountain streams, than upon the East-side lakes and reed-grown ponds. 

 It is to be feared that when the Fish Duck encounters a lusty school 

 of herring or a company of young salmon he does not agree that "enough 

 is as good as a feast." An Arctic authority. Hearne, states that it de- 

 vours fish in such great quantities as to be frequently obliged to disgorge 

 several before it can rise from the water. It is noteworthy in this con- 

 nection that the skin of the throat is unusually elastic, so that the bird 

 can accommodate a large catch. Mr. Bowles once shot a female which 

 had a suspiciously swollen throat. A post mortem disclosed a seven-inch 

 trout, whose head was digesting comfortalily, but whose tail had not yet 

 found entrance into the bird's stomach. After an especially satisfying 

 meal the bird is likely to clamber ashore in some secluded sput and indulge 

 in a digestive nap. On such an occasion I once got near enough to sprinkle 

 salt on the gluttonous creature's tail, but a grating pebble ga\-c the i)lot 

 awav before I got my hands upon her. 



Like the Golden-eye and certain other ducks, this Sheldrake usually 

 occupies a hollow tree or stub for a nesting site. Now and then a crevice 

 in the face of a cliff does duty, and old nests of hawk or crow ha^■e been 

 pressed into ser\"ice. Moderate elevations are fa\'ored. but Mr. Bowles 

 once found a nest near Puget Sound in a decayed fir stub at a heiglit of 

 over a hundred feet. The cavity, wlierever found, is warmly lined with 

 weeds, grasses, and rootlets, and plentifully sup])lied with down from the 

 bird's breast. The eggs are of a clear creamy, or dull buffy, tint, and 

 liave that "hard-oil" finish characteristic of so many ducks' eggs, and 

 thev are further polislied by foiu" weeks of incubation. The young, when 

 liatched, require to be transported to the water in the maternal beak — a 

 rather trying ordeal, we must presume, in the case of that tenth-story tenant 

 of the fir stub. 



