344 Townsend, Courtship of the Red-breasted Merganser. Ljuly 



The largest number I ever saw at Ipswich was on October 23, 1910, 

 when Mr. F. H. Allen and I estimated, and we believe conserva- 

 tively, twenty thousand Red-breasted Mergansers off the beach. 

 Better enforcement of the game laws, and especially the establish- 

 ment of a close season in the late winter and spring, are I believe 

 the chief reasons for this increase. I am also of the opinion that we 

 owe a great deal to M. Meunier, the great French chocolate king, 

 for his exclusion of guns from the island of Anticosti, which has 

 become his property, — an island that thus forms a splendid breed- 

 ing sanctuary for Mergansers, Black Ducks, Yellow-legs and other 

 water birds. 



The Red-breasted Merganser does not breed in Essex County, 

 but it is not uncommon to find two or three birds, presumably 

 sterile, throughout the summer at Ipswich. The species begins 

 to arrive from the north the last of September, and becomes com- 

 mon and then abundant in October. The great throngs of birds 

 in this month appear to be made up almost exclusively of birds 

 in the female or immature plumage. In the latter part of the 

 month and in November many are to be seen changing into the 

 beautiful dress of the adult male, while by the last of December 

 and throughout January and February it is comparatively rare 

 to see a bird in female attire. Thus on January 24, 1904, out of 

 some five hundred Mergansers I could count only six in the female 

 plumage. In March the females put in an appearance, and court- 

 ing begins, and by the last of April and in May the birds are largely 

 paired, although flocks of either or both sexes are common. Many 

 of the birds remain late in May before migrating for the north. 

 Thus on May 14, 1905, I saw 200 Red-breasted Mergansers at 

 Ipswich, 42 on May 20, 1904, and 32 on May 26, 1907. Some at 

 least of the immature males are slow in changing to adult plumage, 

 and males in nearly complete immature dress with only a few 

 greenish feathers about the head are seen and have been shot in 

 April and May. Whether these birds complete the nuptial moult 

 that year or not until the next year I am unable to say. 



So much for the plumage and sexes of the birds at the various 

 seasons. In numbers they are the greatest in the latter part of 

 October and in November. In December, January and February 

 they are fairly constant in numbers but considerably less than in 



