544 MERGANSER 
breeds abundantly in many parts of Scandinavia, Russia, Siberia 
and North America, and of late years has been found to do so in 
Scotland, usually making its nest in the stump of a hollow tree or 
under a slab of rock. JM. serrator, commonly called the Red-breasted 
Merganser, is a somewhat smaller bird ; and, while the fully-dressed 
male wants the delicate hue of the lower parts, he has a gorget of 
rufous mottled with black, below which is a patch of white feathers, 
broadly edged with black. The male at other times and the female 
always much resemble the preceding. It is more numerous than 
the Goosander, with a somewhat more southern range, and is not so 
particular in selecting a sheltered site for its nest. Both these 
species have the bill and feet of a bright reddish-orange, while J. 
albellus, known as the SMEw, has these parts of a lead colour, and 
the breeding-plumage of the adult male is white, with quaint 
crescentic markings of black, and the flanks most beautifully 
vermiculated—the female and male in undress having a general 
resemblance to the other two already described—but the Smew is 
very much smaller in size, and, so far as is known, it invariably 
makes its nest in a hollow tree, as ascertained first by Wolley (Jdis, 
1859, pp. 69 et seq.) This last habit is shared by M. cucullatus, the 
Hooded Merganser of North America, in size intermediate between 
M. albellus and M. serrator, the male of which is easily recognizable 
by his broad semicircular crest, bearing a fan-shaped patch of white, 
and his elongated subscapulars of white edged with black. The 
conformation of the trachea in the male of M. merganser, M. 
serrator, and M. cucullatus is very like that of the Ducks of the 
genus Clangula, but M. albellus has a less exaggerated development 
more resembling that of the ordinary Fuligula.t From the southern 
hemisphere two species of Mergus have been described, M. octosetaceus 
or brasilianus, Vieillot (NV. Dict. @ Hist. Nat. ed. 2, xiv. p. 222; Gal. 
des Ois. ii. p. 209, pl. 283), inhabiting South America, of which but 
few specimens have been obtained, having some general resemblance 
1 Four hybrids between, as is presumed, M. albellus and Clangula glaucion, 
the GOLDEN-EYE, have been described and figured (Eimbeck, Jsts, 1831, 300; 
tab. iii. ; Brehm, Naturgesch. aller Vog. Deutschlands, p. 930; Naumann, Vg. 
Deutschlands, xii. p. 194, frontispiece ; Kjerbolling, Jour. fiir Ornithologie, 1853, 
Extraheft, p. 29, Nawmannia, 1853, p. 327, Ornithol. Danica, tab. lv. suppl. 
tab. 29; F. Schmidt, Arch. Naturgesch. Mecklenbd. 1875, p. 145; Wolschke, 
VII. Jahresber. Annab.-Buchholz. Ver. fiir Naturk. ; Kolthoff, Gfvers. K. Vet.- 
Ak. Foérh. 1884, p. 185, pls. xxxi. xxxii.) sometimes under the names of 
Mergus anatarius, Clangula angustirostris, and Anas (Clangula) mergoides, as 
though they were a distinct species; but the remarks of Baron de Selys- 
Longchamps (Bull. Ac. Sc. Brux. 1845, pt. ii. p. 354, and 1856, pt. ii. p. 21), and 
Prof. R. Blasius (Ifonatsschr. Ver. zu Schutz. der Vogelwelt, 1887) leave little room 
for doubt as to their origin, which, when the cryptogamic habit and common 
range of their putative parents, the former unknown to the author named last 
but one, is considered, will seem to be still more likely. 
