S44 MERGANSER 



breeds abundantly in many parts of Scandinavia, Russia, Siberia 

 and North America, and of late years has been found to do so in 

 Scotland, usually making its nest in the stump of a hollow tree or 

 under a slab of rock. M. serrator, commonly called the Red-breasted 

 Merganser, is a somewhat smaller bird ; and, while the fully -dressed 

 male wants the delicate hue of the lower parts, he has a gorget of 

 rufous mottled with black, below which is a patch , of white feathers, 

 broadly edged with black. The male at other times and the female 

 always much resemble the preceding. It is more numerous than 

 the Goosander, with a somewhat more southern range, and is not so 

 particular in selecting a sheltered site for its nest. Both these 

 species have the bill and feet of a bright reddish-orange, while M. 

 alhellus, known as the Smew, has these parts of a lead colour, and 

 the breeding- plumage of the adult male is white, with quaint 

 crescentic markings of black, and the flanks most beautifully 

 vermiculated — the female and male in undress having a general 

 resemblance to the other two already described — but the Smew is 

 very much smaller in size, and, so far as is known, it invariably 

 makes its nest in a hollow tree, as ascertained first by Wolley (Ibis, 

 1859, pp. 69 et seq.) This last habit is shared by M. cucullatus, the 

 Hooded Merganser of North America, in size intermediate between 

 M. alhellus and M. serrator, the male of which is easily recognizable 

 by his broad semicircular crest, bearing a fan-shaped patch of Avhite, 

 and his elongated subscapulars of white edged with black. The 

 conformation of the trachea in the male of M. merganser, M. 

 serrator, and M. cucullatus is very like that of the Ducks of the 

 genus Clangula, but M. alhellus has a less exaggerated development 

 more resembling that of the ordinary Fuligula} From the southern 

 hemisphere two species of Mergus have been described, M. octosetaceus 

 or brasilianus, Vieillot {K Diet. d'Hist. Nat. ed. 2, xiv. p. 222 ; Gal. 

 des Ois. ii. p. 209, pi. 283), inhabiting South America, of which but 

 few specimens have been obtained, having some general resemblance 



^ Four hybrids between, as is presumed, M. alhellus and Clangula glaucion, 

 the GoLDEK-EYE, have been described and figured (Eimbeck, Isis, 1831, 300 ; 

 tab. iii. ; Brehm, Naturgesch. aller Vog. Deutschlands, p. 930 ; Naumann, Vog. 

 Deutscklands, xii. p. 194, frontispiece ; KjeerboUing, Jour, fiir Ornithologie, 1853, 

 Extraheft, p. 29, Naumannia, 1853, p. 327, Ornithol. Danica, tab. Iv. suppl. 

 tab. 29 ; F. Schmidt, Arch. Naturgesch. Mecklcnh. 1875, p. 145 ; AVolschke, 

 VII. Jahresher. Annab.-Buchholz. Ver. fiir Naturk. ; KolthofF, CEfvers. K. Vet.- 

 Ak. Fork. 1884, p. 185, pis. xxxi. xxxii.) sometimes under the names of 

 Mergus anatarius, Clangula angustirostris, and Anas (Clangula) mergoides, as 

 though they were a distinct species ; but the remarks of Barou de Selys- 

 Longchamps {Bull. Ac. Sc. Brux. 1845, pt. ii. p. 354, and 1856, i:)t. ii. p. 21), and 

 Prof. R. Blasius [Monatsschr. Ver. zu Schutz. der Vogelwelt, 1887) leave little room 

 for doubt as to their origin, which, when the cryptoganiic habit and common 

 range of theii- putative parents, the former unknown to the author named last 

 but one, is considered, will seem to be still more likely. 



