"^"^Ql? ^^] Strong, Red-breasted Merganser. 479 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE LIFE-HISTORY OF 



THE RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, 



MERGUS SERRATOR, LINN. 



BY R. M. STRONG. 



During the summer of 1911, it was the writer's good fortune 

 to be in a locaHty where Red-breasted Mergansers were breeding 

 in some numbers. Headquarters were established at Ephraim, 

 Door County, Wisconsin; and islands in Green Bay were explored 

 a number of times. Spider Island and Gravel Island, across the 

 peninsula in Lake Michigan, were also visited with the aid of in- 

 formation kindly furnished by Mr. Henry L. Ward of the Mil- 

 waukee Public Museum. All of the wooded islands in this region 

 not occupied by man, were found to have nests of the Red-breasted 

 Merganser. On examination of the literature, later, only frag- 

 mentary accounts of the life-history of this bird could be found. 

 As these are also much scattered, it has seemed desirable to collect 

 such material as is available with the observations made by the 

 writer into the following article. 



The Red-breasted Merganser is generally described as having 

 a wide distribution in the northern part of the northern hemisphere 

 from Alaska eastward even to Japan and China. It breeds in the 

 northern portions of its range. According to Ridgway ' there are 

 breeding records as far south as northern Illinois. 



All of the nests which were found by the writer were on the 

 ground in scrubby growths or among forest underbrush on islands. 

 Mergansers were seen near the shore of the mainland, under cir- 

 cumstances which suggested strongly that they were breeding 

 there also, but no nests were found on the mainland. The general 

 characteristics of the nests and of their locations corresponded to 

 the descriptions given by the authors of various works on birds. 



Nest No. 1 was found June 20 at the base of the bush which 

 appears in Plate XXI, fig. 1. It contained only five eggs at this 

 time, and it consisted as usual of a mass of sticks and debris lined 



' Ridgway, R. Manual of North American Birds. Also in The Ornithology 

 of Illinois, Vol. II. Part 1, p. 189-190. 



