120 LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS — ANSERES. 



Eggs of this species collected on Hudson's Bay by Mr. Drexler (Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, No. 4350) vary from 2.45 to 2.50 inches in length, and from 1.75 to 1.80 in 

 breadth, and are of a uniform pale-drab color. Mr. Dresser describes the color of this 

 egg as being a dull stone-drab, or creamy buff, with a greenish-gray tinge, and as 

 measuring from 2.55 inches by 1.75, and 2.55 by 1.85, to 2.75 by 1.80, and 2.65 by 

 1.70. The down with which the nest of this bird is lined is light gray, with a bluish 

 tinge, the centres being white, and the tips grayish white. Mr. Dresser thinks none 

 of this species remain to breed in New Brunswick ; but in this he is certainly mis- 

 taken, as I have met with its nests in the more southern portions. It is probably 

 more or less common in that province and in Nova Scotia. 



Genus LOPHODYTES, Keichenbaoh. 



Lophodytes, Reicuenb. Syst. A v. 1852, p. ix. (type, Mergus cueullatus, Linn.). 



Char. Bill shorter than the head, black ; serrations compressed, low, short, inserted obliquely 

 on the edge of the bill. Tail more than half as long as the wings. Tarsus about two thirds as 

 long as the longest toe (with claw). Head with a full, semicircular, compressed crest of hair-like 

 feathers. 



The genus Lophodytes is quite distinct from Mergus in the possession of the above characters. 

 The bill is also much more depressed terminally, and, in proportion to its length, deeper through 

 I'm base. The nostrils are situated far back, as in M. senator bul one species is known, unless 

 the Mergus octosetaa us of Vieillot, 3 a South American bird (which we have not seen), be referable 

 to this genus rather than to ]\L rgus 



1 Mergus octosetaceus. 



Mergus octosetaceus, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. XIV. 1S17, 222. — Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1876, 409 



(monographic). 

 Mergus brasilianus, Vieill. Gal. Ois. II. 1834, 209, pi. 283. — Pelz. Orn. Bras. 1870, 322.— 



Scl. & Salv. Nom. Neotr. 1S73, 131. 

 Mergus fuscus, Licht. Vera. Donbl. 1^2:;, 85. 

 "Mergus loplioies, Cuv. MS." (Schlegel.) 



