Genus LOPHODYTES Reichenbach. 

 L0PH0DYTE8 CUCULLATUS (Linn.). 



36. Hooded Merganser. (131) 



Nostrils, sub-basal ; frontal feathers, reaching beyond those on sides of bill ; 

 a compact, erect, semicircvilar, laterally compressed crest in the male, smaller 

 and less rounded in the female. Male: — Black, including two crescents in 

 front of wing, and bar across speculum ; imder parts, centre of crest, speculum 

 and stripes on tertials, white; sides, chestnut, black-barred. Length, 18-19; 

 wing, 8. Female: — Smaller; head and neck, brown; chin, whitish; back and 

 sides, dark brown, the feathers with jialer edges ; white on the wing less ; bill, 

 reddish at base below. 



Hab. — North America generally, south to Mexico and Cuba, breeding nearly 

 throughout its range. 



Nest, in a hole in a tree or stump, warmly lined witli soft grass, feathers 

 and down. 



Eggs, six to eight, buff or dark cream color. 



This beautiful little Saw-bill is a regular visitor to Hamilton Bay, 

 where it spends a short time in the beginning of April, before retiring 

 to its more remote breeding grounds. 



The habit of raising its young in a hole in a tree seems rather a 

 singular one for a bird of this class, but in this retired position the 

 female spends the anxious hours of incubation, beyond the reach of 

 danger to which she might elsewhere be exposed. As soon as tlie 

 young are old enough to bear transportation, she takes them one 

 after another by the nape of the neck and drops them gently into the 



