Courtship Praticed by the American Merganser 



127 



showed above the surface, her head and neck being apparently, completely 

 immersed. "That must be a dead bird," I said to my companion. During 

 the next three or four minutes she remained thus immovable, and the drake 

 continued to encircle her, .occasionally pecking at her very gently. At length, 

 and of a sudden, the water was violently agitated, and a brown-crested head, 

 followed by a grayish body, came into full view, as the female Merganser 

 sprang almost clear of the surface by a single convulsive effort. After this 

 she swam sedately by the side of her mate as long as we had the pair in sight. 

 Her odd behavior at first was, I think, in the nature of a bit of studied and 

 probably conventional coquetry, practised to stimulate the ardor of the male. 

 Similarly, a female Mallard, when in the presence of a drake with whom she 

 desires to mate, "may coyly lower herself in the water till only the top of her 

 back, head, and neck is seen," this being her "last appeal" to him. So, at 

 least, Millais aiSirms in his beautiful and valuable book entitled "The Natural 

 History of the British Surface-feeding Ducks," where the words just quoted 

 occur on pages 6 and 7. 



W lin K-i ki i\\M::ii M'ARROW 

 Photographed by G. A. Bailey, Genesee. N. Y. 



