286 ANATTD.E. 



" The Hooded Mergansers which leave the United States, 

 take their departure from the first of March to the middle 

 of May ; and I am induced to believe that, probably, one- 

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

 gins of several of our great lakes. When migrating, they 

 fly at a great height, in small loose flocks, without any regard 

 to order. Their notes consist of a kind of rough grunt, 

 variously modulated, but by no means musical, and resem- 

 bling the syllables croo, croo, crooh. The female repeats it 

 six or seven times in succession, when she sees her young in 

 danger. The same noise is made by the male, either when 

 courting on the water, or as he passes on wing near the hole 

 where the female is laving- one of her eo-S'S.'''' 



In the adult male the bill is dull reddish-brown ; the irides 

 yellow ; head, and upper part of the neck black ; top of the 

 head ornamented Avith a half circular crest, the posterior half 

 of which is white edged with black ; back and wing-coverts 

 black ; primaries, secondaries, rump, and tail-feathers dark- 

 brown ; scapulars and tcrtials elongated, slender, and white, 

 edged with black ; lower part of neck in front white, with the 

 points of two crescentic bands descending from the upper 

 part of the back, and directed forwards ; belly, vent and 

 under tail-coverts white; sides waved with yellowish-brown; 

 legs and feet dull red. The whole length of the bird nine- 

 teen inches ; the wing, from the point to the end of the 

 longest quill-feather seven inches and a half. 



The female is rather smaller in size ; the head, neck, back, 

 and wings dark brown ; top of the head reddish-brown, the 

 feathers elongated ; chin white ; neck in front pale brown, 

 the edges of the feathers lighter in colour ; under parts 

 white ; bill, irides, and feet, as in the males. The young 

 birds resemble the female for the first year ; during the 

 second the black and white about the head appears in young 

 males ; in the third spring they are complete. 



