THE MERGANSERS. 287 



whose work I make this extract, gives an interesting 

 account of the stratagems employed for this purpose at 

 places on the French coast, where the pursuit of this 

 game is deemed so important as to be a matter of muni- 

 cipal regulation. At the end of the family of Ducks 

 are placed the Mergansers, of which we have four Bri- 

 tish kinds. They differ chiefly from others of the family 

 by the comparatively long and slender bill, furnished 

 with fine teeth along the edges and hooked at the 

 extremity. The form of their body resembles that of 

 other Sea-ducks, and their habits are very similar. All 

 our species are furnished with crests, or long feathers 

 at the back of the head. The Smew (Mergus albellus), 

 the smallest and commonest, is a very elegantly marked 

 bird, white, diversified with black and grey ; a black 

 face, and slate-coloured bill, with a white neck and 

 breast, and a white head, all but the face and poll- 

 feathers, the latter, forming the crest, being partly 

 greenish-black and partly white. The Red-breasted 

 Merganser (Mergus serratoi-) is a larger species, painted 

 with equal variety, but in gayer colours. The head 

 and throat are of a rich shining green, the neck white, 



say, that nothing is farther from my thought, or would give me 

 greater pain, than to wound the feelings of any member of the 

 Church of Rome, in whose communion are included many friends 

 whom I highly esteem, and one to whom I am bound by the closest 

 ties of friendship. As to the matter in question, eating Barnacles as 

 fish, we must bear in mind that at the time the custom originated, 

 every one including the naturalists of that day firmly believed in 

 the marine origin of this bird. To a later period the Whale and 

 Porpoise were supposed to be fishes and if their flesh also had 

 been eaten as fish, who would have questioned the propriety of the 

 practice ? 



