HOODED MERGANSER 161 
tail, dark brown; wing-coverts, chiefly black, barred 
with white; elongated and decurved scapulars, and inner 
secondaries, white, edged with black; lower neck and upper 
breast, white, interrupted by two black crescents ; abdomen 
and under tail-coverts, white ; flanks, tinged with ight brown. 
Adult male, post nuptial or eclipse..—It would appear 
that the adult male of this species (like other Mergansers) 
assumes a plumage in late summer which approaches that 
of the female. 
Adult female nuptial—The head-crest, which is longer 
and more drooping than that of the male, is of a reddish- 
brown colour; head, back of neck, back, and wings, brown ; 
chin, white; front of neck, ight brown; breast and ab- 
domen, white. 
Adult winter, male and female.—Similar to the respec- 
tive nuptial plumages. 
Immature, male and female—Resembles the female 
plumage, but the crest 1s very rudimentary or wanting. 
Brak. Black. 
Fret. Dull red. 
Iripes. Bright yellow. 
Eee. Ivory white: clutch, five to eight. 
AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 
TOTAT, LENGTH. ... ee. Pas ae OS orm. 
WING wae = ye ha OMe 
BEAK oe ah =e are § Bult orank 2 
TARSO-METATARSUS MD tas 
Kec Zett S< alee anal 
' Note.—It seems highly probable that the adult males of all the 
Palearctic and Nearctic Ducks which differ in plumage from the females, 
assume in late summer, and usually for a short period, an eclipse dress. 
It would appear that in this garb several species are overlooked. The 
reader is referred to an interesting article in the ‘ Avicultural Magazine,’ 
1906, pp. 259 et seq., where Mr. Finn maintains that the Ferruginous 
Duck assumes no eclipse plumage; on the other hand, in the Bulletin of 
the Brit. Ornith. Club, vol. xvi, p. 80, a reference is made to Naumann’s 
Naturgesch. Vég. Mitteleuropas, pl. x, fig. 4, and pl. xiv, fig. 1, where the 
eclipse plumage of Ferruginous Duck is figured. 
Mr. J. Lewis Bonhote has recently described an intermediate plumage 
of the Shoveler (Bull. B.O.C., vol. xvi, p. 64), and, in detail, the eclipse 
plumage of the Smew (Avicult. Mag., 1905, p. 122). 
In Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxvii, p. 408, the eclipse plumage of the 
Velvet Scoter is described, but of the Common Scoter it is stated ‘males 
in moulting dress are unknown,” p. 403 (Salvadori). 
11 
