BULLETIN No. 34. II 



lards and Black Ducks. I have never seen males and females 

 on the same day. Totally unfit for food, they are not molested 

 by the hunters and are only useful to the taxidermist. They 

 are wonderful divers and will swallow fish so lar^iic that they 

 have to keep them in their throats until the heads are dii^ested 

 by the stomach. A female killed March 7th, 1898, had a shiner 

 ten inches lonij; in her throat and ,uullet. The tail of the fish 

 protruded from the bill of the duck which was flying when shot. 

 1 killed a large male on Feb. 22, on the river that had sev- 

 eral small fish and one seven inch sucker in his throat. The 

 head of the sucker was partially digested. 



These Mergansers are unable to take wing against the cur- 

 rent and always rise down streams as the current is very swift 

 and they cannot get the resistance of the water against their 

 feet when trying to fly up streams and I have seen them flop 

 along the water for fifty feet against the current in a vain at- 

 tempt to rise when danger threatened below them. 



The Red-breasted Merganser is a more common species and 

 mak'es its appearance on the lakes about the last week of March. 

 Traveling in larger companies than the foregoing species it 

 comes well to decoys. Their food consists of fish of the smal- 

 ler varieties and I have never f uind any large fish in their 

 gullets. After the ducks season is over they become very tame 

 and associate with the tame ducks on t!ie lakes. 



The Hooded Merganser is the smallest of the Mergansers 

 and the only one that is seen here in t!ie fall to any extent. It 

 appears on the lakes in October in small companies, mostly 

 females although a few males are seen. This Merganser is a 

 very fair table duck and compares favorably with Widgeon and 

 Bluebill. The rarest uf the three Mergansers with us and the 

 last to arrive in spring this species first appears on the lakes 

 in the first week of April. 



Wm. B. Haynes, Akron, O. 



THE FIRST 20tli CENTURY HORIZON AT OBERLIN, 



OHIO. 



According to my established custom, the first day of the 

 new century found me a-field starting the list of species for 



