HOODED MERGANSER. 511 



Bart. In his 'Fowler in Ireland' (p. 121), Sir R. Payne- 

 Gall wey says that he has had the good fortune to secure no 

 less than three. One pair was procured in the severe frost of 

 December 1878, in Cork Harbour, where they haunted a creek 

 in company with some Red-breasted Mergansers ; but though 

 he had ample chances of observing their motions, feeding 

 and flying, through a glass, they were too wild to get within 

 range of, until one day when he found them deserted by 

 their companions. He killed the third bird during the yet 

 more severe weather of January 1881, on the north coast of 

 Kerry ; and he heard of a solitary individual being shot 

 near Sligo the same winter, but he believes it was not pre- 

 served. From what he saw of those he shot, they appeared 

 to fly faster and with a more darting motion than other 

 Mergansers, though diving with equal facility : but on one 

 occasion a crippled Hooded Merganser made no efi'ort to 

 dive, but swam low in the water like a wounded Teal, with 

 the crest laid flat and smooth ; the head looking small and 

 black, very different to its usually handsome and bushy 

 aspect. 



There is no authenticated instance of the occurrence of 

 the Hooded Merganser on the continental coast of Europe, 

 nor, so far as the Editor can discover, in Greenland, to 

 which it is stated by the authors of ' The Water Birds of 

 North America ' to be an occasional visitor. In winter it 

 straggles to Mexico, Cuba, and the Bermudas ; it is abun- 

 dant in the Caroliuas, which form the southern limit of 

 its breeding-range ; and northward it is found in suitable 

 localities throughout North America up to the St. Lawrence 

 on the east, and Alaska on the west. Through the Fur 

 Countries it is numerous and generally distributed, within 

 the limits of forest growth. 



So far as our present knowledge goes, the Hooded 

 Merganser invariably makes its nest in the hollows of 

 trees, lining it with down, which, according to Mr. G. A. 

 Boardman, as quoted in the above-mentioned ' Water Birds,' 

 is dark-coloured : not white, as the down of birds which nest 

 in holes usually is. The eggs, from five to eight in number, 



