478 HOODED MERGANSER. 



with a more darting motion than their congeners, though diving 

 with equal facility ; on one occasion, however, a crippled Hooded 

 Merganser made no effort to submerge itself, but swam low in the 

 water like a wounded Teal, with the crest laid flat and the head 

 looking small and black, very unlike its usually bushy aspect. For 

 the evidence that Hoy obtained a male in Norfolk in the winter 

 of 1837-38, reference may be made to Stevenson's 'Birds of 

 Norfolk,' iii. p. 228. 



There is no authenticated instance of the occurrence of the 

 Hooded Merganser on the Continent, nor, so far as I can discover, 

 in Greenland, to which this species is stated by the authors of ' The 

 Water Birds of North America ' to be an occasional visitor. In 

 winter it reaches Mexico, Cuba and the Bermudas ; it is abundant 

 in the Carolinas, which form its southern breeding-limit ; and north- 

 ward it is found up to the St. Lawrence on the east and Alaska on 

 the west, within the limits of forest-growth. 



As far as our present knowledge goes, the Hooded Merganser 

 invariably makes its nest in the hollows of trees, and lines it with 

 down, which, according to Mr. G. A. Boardman, is dark-coloured, 

 and not white, as the down of birds which nest in holes usually is. 

 The 5-8 eggs are of a pure ivory-white, and of an oval or almost 

 globular form: measurements 2"i by 175 in. This species feeds 

 on fish ; the localities it affects are fresh-water ponds in summer, 

 and deep creeks on the sea-coast in winter. 



The adult male has the bill black ; irides bright yellow ; head and 

 upper neck black, ornamented with a semi-circular crest in which 

 the posterior half is white edged with black ; back and wing-coverts 

 black ; quills, rump and tail-feathers dark brown ; the elongated and 

 slender scapulars and the inner secondaries white, edged with black, 

 lower neck in front white, with two black crescentic bands descend- 

 ing from the upper part of the back and directed forwards ; belly, 

 vent and under tail-coverts white ; sides waved with yellowish-brown ; 

 legs and feet dull red. Length about 19 in.; wing 775 in. The 

 female is rather smaller in size, and has an elongated reddish-brown 

 crest ; head, hind neck, back, and wings dark brown ; chin white ; 

 neck in front pale brown, the edges of the feathers lighter in colour; 

 under parts white ; bill, irides and feet, as in the male. The young 

 resemble the female for the first year, but during the second the 

 black and white about the head appears in the drakes, and in the 

 third spring their plumage is complete. 



