Vol. XXVIII 

 1911 



J Townsend, Courtship of the Red-breasted Merganser. 341 



THE COURTSHIP AND MIGRATION OF THE RED- 

 BREASTED MERGANSER (MERGUS SERRATOR). 1 



BY CHARLES W. TOWNSEND, M. D. 



The Red-breasted Merganser or Sheldrake, as it is commonly 

 called on the New England coast, is an interesting and at some 

 seasons an abundant bird. Like the Whistler and the Eider, 2 

 this duck has a spectacular and distinctive courtship display. 



The nuptial performance is always at its best when several 

 drakes are displaying their charms of movement, voice and plumage, 

 before a single duck, and each vies with the other in the ardor of 

 the courtship. The drake begins by stretching up his long neck 

 so that the white ring is much broadened, and the metallic green 

 head, with its long crest and its narrow red bill, makes a conspicu- 

 ous object. At once the bill is opened wide and the whole bird 

 stiffly bobs or teters as if on a pivot, in such a way that the breast 

 and the lower part of the neck are immersed, while the tail and 

 posterior part of the body swing upward. This motion brings 

 the neck and head from a vertical position to an angle of forty-five 

 degrees. All the motions are stiffly executed, and suggest a formal 

 but ungraceful courtesy. 



For many years I have seen this performance more or less im- 

 perfectly in the spring, but, owing to the distance of the birds or 

 the direction of the wind, I have been unable until recently to hear 

 the nuptial song that the open mouth of the bird led me to expect. 

 On April 19 last, however, the conditions were most favorable, 

 and, in company with Mr. Francis H. Allen, I not only saw but 

 heard the courtship performance repeated many times at Ipswich. 

 Concealed behind some bushes at the foot of Castle Hill at the 

 mouth of the Ipswich River with a gentle wind blowing towards us, 

 we watched and listened to the birds within two or three hundred 

 yards of us for over half an hour. Again on April 30 I had a 

 similar but less favorable opportunity. My notes of the nuptial 

 movements correspond with those taken several times before 



'Read before the Nuttall Ornithological Club, May 15, 1911. 

 2 Auk. XXVII, 1910, pp. 177-181. 



