Il6 ANSERIFORMES 



CHAP. 



are black and white, the bill is black, the feet are brown. The 

 female has a red-brown crest, brown chest, and upper surface. 



The members of this Sub-family are shy and wary sea-birds, 

 seldom found on fresh water except during the breeding season ; 

 they fly well, walk clumsily, and dive admirably, swimming low 

 in the water. The cry is a plaintive whistle or loud harsh note ; 

 the food consists of little but fish. The Eed-breasted Merganser 

 breeds in holes in banks, or among grass and heather, laying up 

 to ten brownish-green eggs ; the Goosander deposits from eight 

 to thirteen, of a fine creamy colour, in similar places, or in hollow 

 trees ; the Smew and the Hooded Merganser prefer the latter, 

 and lay some eight creamy or ivory-white eggs respectively. 



Sub-fam. 2. Merganettinae. Scdvadorina ivaigiuensis of 

 "Waigiou has the head and neck blackish-brown with paler edges 

 to the feathers, a white chin, black upper parts barred with white, 

 and buffish-white under parts with brown abdominal spots ; the 

 sides are barred with black, and the black and green speculum is 

 bounded by two white bands. The bill and feet are yellowisli- 

 brown. Hymenolaemus malacorhynchus, the Blue Duck of New 

 Zealand, is lead-blue, tinged wdth olive on the head and spotted 

 with chestnut on the breast, the outer secondaries shewing a little 

 white and the inner black. The whitish bill has the dependent 

 membrane (p. Ill) black, the feet are brown. This peculiar 

 and tame torrent-duck is rarely seen on the sea, though it can 

 fly from one gorge to another ; it swims and climbs the boulders 

 with ease, has a whirring note, and feeds chiefly on insect-larvae. 

 It deposits five creamy eggs in holes or under tussocks of grass. 

 Merganetta armata, of Chili, is black above with white edges to 

 the feathers, and rufous with black streaks below ; the head and 

 neck are white, with black crown, vertical eye -stripe, throat, 

 chest, and streaks down the back and sides of the neck ; the 

 bronzy-green speculum has a white band on each side, the bill is 

 yellow, the feet are reddish. M. frenata, of Chili, is very 

 similar ; M. tiirncri, of South Peru, has a white throat and rufous 

 edges to the feathers of the back ; M. leucogenys, of Peru, has a 

 whitish throat and breast ; while M. garleppi, of Bolivia and 

 Tucuman, and M. columhiana, of Colombia, Ecuador, and Vene- 

 zuela, differ Ijut little from the last-named. The females are grey 

 and black above and uniform cinnamon below. These curious 

 Ducks are restricted to the torrents of the Andes, where they 



