HOODED MERGANSER. 613 



clean sand-beach, where they alight, and where, secure from 

 danger, they repose until the return of day. This bird 

 ranges throughout the United States during Avinter, content 

 with the food it meets with in the bays and estuaries of the 

 eastern coast, and on the inland streams. The dam of the 

 Pennsylvania miller is as agreeable to it as that of the 

 Carolina rice-planter ; even the numerous streams and pools 

 of the interior of the Floridas are resorted to by this 

 species, and there I have found them full of life and gaiety, 

 as well as on the Missouri, and on our great lakes. When 

 the weather proves too cold for them they go southwards, 

 many of them removing towards Mexico." 



" The Hooded Mergansers that remain with us nestle in 

 the same kind of holes or hollows as the Wood Ducks ; at 

 least I have found their nests in such situations seven or 

 eight times, although I never saw one of them alight on the 

 branch of a tree, as the birds just mentioned are wont to do. 

 They dive, as it were, directly into their wooden burrows, 

 where, on a few dried weeds and feathers of different kinds, 

 with a small quantity of down from the breast of the female, 

 the eggs are deposited. The young, like those of the Wood 

 Duck, are conveyed to the water by their mother, who 

 carries them gently in her bill ; for the male takes no part 

 in providing for his offspring, but abandons his mate as soon 

 as incubation has commenced. The affectionate mother 

 leads her young among the tall rank grasses which fill the 

 shallow pools, or the borders of creeks, and teaclies them to 

 procure snails, tadpoles, and insects. On two occasions 

 the parents would not abandon the young, although I 

 expected that the noises which I made would have induced 

 them to do so ; they both followed their offspring into the 

 net which I had set for them. The young all died in two 

 days, when I restored the old birds to liberty." 



" The Hooded Mergansers which leave the United 

 States take their departure from the 1st of March to the 

 middle of May ; and I am induced to belies^e that, probably, 

 one-third of them tarry for the purpose of breeding on the 

 margins of several of our great lakes. When migrating, 



VOL. IV. 3 u 



