SUPPLEMENT TO BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY 



49 



port on JMarch 14, 1909. Air. A. P. Stubbs reports them as common in Walden 

 Pond, Lynn, as soon as the ice breaks up and until well into April. 



The spectacular courtship of this bird with its display of the salmon-tinted 

 breast, the bowing, the great spurt of water made by the feet, and the purring 

 note I have already described.^ 



44 [130] Mergus serrator Linn. 



Red-breasted Merganser; " Shelldrake "; '"Sea-robin." 



Abundant transient and winter visitor; rare summer resident. September 

 23 to June 6. 



In 1905, I had no evidence of the breeding of tliis bird in Essex County ; but 

 in 1916 and 1917, I have reason to believe that one or more pairs of the Red- 

 breasted Merganser raised broods at Ipswich. In 1916, on July 30, I found a 

 group of eleven young birds nearly full grown with an adult female, while near 

 at hand was an adult male in partial molt into the eclipse plumage. On July 4, 

 1917, a compact flock of thirty was to be seen off Ipswich Beach. One or two 

 of these were adult females and two were adult males in molt.^ 



It is easy enough for Mergansers to mount into the air from the beach if the 

 wind is favorable, but when both their enemy, man, and the wind, come from the 

 land side the problem is difficult. Three that were resting on Ipswich Beach on 

 November 8, 1914, thus solved the problem: they waddled rapidly to the water 

 and flapped frantically over the surface until they were about a hundred yards off 

 shore; then they turned about, faced the strong off-shore wind, rose easily from 

 the water and swung around seaward. 



The courtship, imperfectly observed prior to 1905, has since been carefully 

 studied, and I have described it at length in the pages of the Auk.'' 



On April 14, 1918, I watched some courtship performances that were amus- 

 ingly modified by the state of the tide. There were eight ma4e and two female 

 Red-breasted Mergansers in Castleneck River and the tide was low with exposed 

 sand flats. The males were all actively courting, bobbing and ducking violently 

 and sounding their love song. The two females modestly retreated into shallow 

 water before this concerted attack, and, as the circle of admirers closed in on 

 them, they walked up on to the flat. In the shallow water, the males were unable 



'^ Townsend, C. W. Auk, vol. 33, p. 9-17, 1916. 



^Townsend, C. W. Auk, vol. 33, p. 183, 1918. 



3 Townsend, C. W. Auk, vol. 28, p. 341-343, 1911. 



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