RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 



291 



inches. From tlie carpal joint to the end of the longest 

 quill-feather ten inches. 



Females are rather smaller than males, and have the head 

 and the neck behind reddish-brown, darkest on the crown of 

 the head, the occipital feathers elongated ; all the back, sca- 

 pulars, and small wing-coverts umber-brown ; greater coverts 

 and secondaries dark brownish-black, ending with white, 

 forming two white bands ; primaries and tertials dark brown- 

 ish-black ; upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers brown-ash 

 colour ; neck in front mottled with reddish and pale brown, 

 on a white ground ; all the under surface of the body white. 

 Whole length about twenty-one inches. 



Young birds resemble adult females during their first winter. 



Males, however, in any state of plumage may be ascertained 

 by passing the finger and thumb down the neck, feeling along 

 the line of the trachea ; the male has an enlargement of the 

 tube before it passes into the body ; the tube of the trachea 

 in the female is uniform in its size throughout its whole 

 length. Young males do not obtain their fine plumage till 

 after their second autumn moult, and old males from the time 

 they desert the females till their autumn moult begins " lose 

 the rich glossy green of the head and neck, which degenerates 

 into an obscure brown, and the fine chestnut colour of the 

 breast entirely disappears." — Gould. 



