DUCKS. 63 
regularly in England, but is now only a straggler to our shores. Like 
its allies, it almost always breeds in colonies; the nest,a mass of twigs, 
flags, or sticks, is sometimes placed in reed-beds or on low bushes, 
but more usually in a tree. Four or five rough white eggs with red- 
brown spots are the full complement for a sitting. 
Order XVI. ANSERITFORMES. Ducx-rrise. 
Family Anatip®. Murcansers, Ducks, Grrse & Swans. 
The cosmopolitan family Anatide, which alone comprises this Order, {Cases 
includes the Mergansers, Ducks, Geese and Swans. They are all easily = aien oe 
recognised by their external characters, such as the flattened or partially Case. ] 
flattened bill, short legs and fully webbed toes, which distinguish them 
from the Screamers and Flamingoes. The majority of the species find 
their food under the water, which is drained away between the lamellze 
with which the edges of the soft-skinned bill are provided, and which 
act like a sieve in retaining the substances or animalcules fit for food. 
In the Geese these lamellz are harder and adapted for cutting grass, 
while in the Mergansers they are recurved to prevent the captured fish 
from escaping. 
A curious feature about many of the Ducks, apparently peculiar to 
all those species in which the male is more brightly coloured than the 
female, is that after the young are hatched the male moults his bright 
plumage and assumes a dull-coloured dress similar to that of the female. 
This change is no doubt protective, for during the moult the male, 
having cast all his flight-feathers, is practically helpless. The “eclipse ”’ 
plumage lasts for several weeks till the quills have been renewed, and is 
then replaced by new feathers of the normal bright livery. 
On the lower shelves of this Case the visitor will find various species [Case 37.] 
of “Saw-bills,” as the genus Merganser and its allies are commonly 
called. The Red-breasted Merganser (M. serrator) (684), the Goosander 
(M. castor) (685), and the beautiful Smew (Mergus albellus) (686) 
are all three British species, the two former breeding in the north of 
Scotland. The Merganser is much the commonest and particularly hated 
by fishermen on account of the enormous numbers of fish it catches, 
including small trout and salmon-fry. A remarkably handsome species 
is the North-American Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) (687), 
which has occasionally been obtained in Great Britain and Lreland 
during severe winter-weather. The Red-breasted Merganser hides its 
nest among thick heather or coarse grass, but the other species men- 
tioned almost always select a hollow tree. 
The genus Merganetta, represented by the Chilian Merganser or 
