98 HOODED MERGANSER. 
The note is represented by the syllables ‘croo, croo,’ repeated 
more or less frequently. Both birds utter it. 
The nest, placed in trees, or, when these are wanting, in 
holes and hollows, in either case by the margins of lakes and 
rivers, is formed of grass and other herbage, lined with feathers 
and down from the breast of the mother bird. 
The eggs, eight or ten in number, and of a yellowish white 
colour, are laid in May, and hatched in June. 
Male; length, one foot six or seven inches; bill, clear reddish 
brown, the tooth black; iris, golden yellow. ‘The head on the 
erown is surmounted by a half-cireular hood, from whence the 
name of the bird. It is spread out flat-wise or closed at 
. pleasure. According to Wilson, the crest is composed of two © 
separate rows of feathers, radiating from each side of the head, 
and easily separable. This hood, as well as the remainder of 
the head, is dusky black with purple and green reflections, with 
the exception of a large somewhat triangular-shaped patch or 
spot of pure white, bordered on the outside with black, behind 
the eye. This is more conspicuous when the crest is spread 
from about it. Neck, also dusky black, with metallic purple 
and green reflections. Breast, white, with two crescent-shaped 
streaks of greenish black, coming forwards on its upper part 
from the like colour on the back; the sides and flanks yellowish 
rust-eclour, and finely pencilled with yellowish brown and 
black; back, deep dusky blackish brown. 
Greater wing coverts, glossy greenish black, tipped with 
white, the bases also white; lesser wing coverts, deep brownish 
black. Primaries, deep brownish black. The secondaries deep 
brownish black, and having the outside borders white, are 
crossed with a bar of white, the bases also white; tertiaries, 
metallic greenish black, the shaft streaks white. Tail, brownish 
black. Legs and toes, clear reddish brown; webs, dusky. 
The female is rather less in size. Length, not quite one 
foot and a half. The bill, which is slender, is clear reddish 
brown. Head on the crown, reddish brown, the feathers 
elongated at the occiput in a semicircular manner, verging 
into pale reddish brown; the remainder and the neck and 
nape, pale brown, the front of the neck paler, the edges of 
the feathers being lighter coloured. Chin, greyish white, 
speckled with pale brown; throat and breast above, brown, 
deeply margined with grey; below, white, the sides brown with 
paler edges to the feathers; back, brownish black. 
The wings, when closed, only reach to within three inches 
