HOODED MERGANSER. 285 



there remains, so that you may search for it in vain, unless 

 you have a good dog. Even on wing it is not easily shot. 

 If on a creek ever so narrow, it will fly directly towards its 

 mouth, although you may be standing knee-deep in the 

 middle. It comes up like a ball, rises and passes over head 

 with astonishing speed, and if you shoot at it, do not calcu- 

 late upon a hit. You may guess how many one may shoot 

 in a day." 



" Like all the rest of the tribe, which, when far north, for 

 the want of hollow trees, breed on the moss or ground, the 

 Hooded Mergansers that remain Avith 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. They are from five to eight, measure 

 one inch and three-fourths, by one and three-eighths, and in 

 other respects perfectly resemble those of the Red-breasted 

 Merganser. The eggs are laid in May, and are hatched 

 some time in June. 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 pro- 

 viding for his offspring, but abandons his mate as soon as in- 

 cubation has commenced. The affectionate mother leads her 

 young among the tall rank grasses which fill the shallow 

 pools, or the borders of creeks, and teaches 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 re- 

 stored the old birds to liberty. 



