MERGUSL.] AVES NATATORES. 249 



Eggs twelve to fourteen in number. Food, fish and amphibious reptiles. 

 Obs. The Dun-Diver of English authors (M. Castor, Linn.) is the female 

 of this species. 



261. M. Serrator, Linn, (Red-breasted Merganser.) 

 Breast (in the male) reddish brown: speculum white, 

 divided by one or two transverse bars : bill and legs red : 

 crest (in the adult male) long, slender, pendent. 



M. Serrator, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. n. p. 884. Red-breasted 

 Merganser, Mont. Orn. Diet. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. n. p. 257. 

 Selb. Illust. vol. n. p. 379. pis. 58, & 58*. (Trachea,) Linn. Trans. 

 vol. iv. pi. 16. f. 1, & 2. 

 DIMENS. Entire length twenty-two inches. 



DESCRIPT. {Adult male.) Head, a pendent crest on the occiput, and 

 upper part of the neck, greenish black, with glossy reflections ; lower 

 part of the neck white, the mesial line behind black; breast reddish 

 brown, spotted and variegated with black; near the insertion of the 

 wing, several large white spots bordered with black ; upper part of the 

 back, scapulars, edge of the wing and adjoining coverts, and primary 

 quills, black ; the rest of the coverts, and secondary quills, white, but 

 these last, as well as the greater coverts, black at the base, the whole 

 together forming a large speculum divided by two transverse bars ; some 

 of the secondaries nearest the body white edged with black : lower part 

 of the back, rump, and flanks, grayish white, with fine transverse undu- 

 lating black lines ; belly and abdomen white ; tail brown : bill orange- 

 red ; the ridge and nail dusky : irides red : legs orange. (Adult female.) 

 Head, crest, and neck, dull ferruginous ; throat white ; fore part of the 

 neck and breast variegated with white and ash-gray ; lower part of the 

 neck behind, back, rump, wings, and scapulars, dark ash-colour; spe- 

 culum white, with one transverse bar, by which it may always be dis- 

 tinguished from the female of the last species, which in other respects 

 it greatly resembles ; belly and abdomen white ; flanks dark ash-colour : 

 bill and legs dull orange : irides brown. (Young male of the year.) 

 Head deep brown; throat grayish white; bill pale red; irides yellow- 

 ish: in other respects like the adult female. (Egg.) Smooth and 

 shining; buff-colour: long. diam. two inches six lines; trans, diam. 

 one inch nine lines. 



A winter visitant in England, and not often met with in the southern 

 counties. More abundant northward. Breeds in some of the Scotch lakes. 

 Nest, according to Selby, composed of small sticks and grass, lined with 

 the down of the female ; built in the thick herbage on the edge of the 

 main land, or on small islets in the lake. Eggs nine in number. Food 

 and habits similar to those of the last species. 



262. M. cucullatus, Linn. (Hooded Merganser.) 

 Head, neck, and upper parts, dusky brown ; beneath white : 

 bill and legs reddish brown : crest (in the adult male) 

 semicircular, compressed. 



M. cucullatus, Faun. Bor. Amer. part ii. p. 463. Hooded Mer- 

 ganser, Lath. Syn. vol. in. p. 426. pi. 101. Wils. Amer. Orn. 

 vol. viii. p. 79. pi. 69. f. 1. Selb. in Trans, of Nat. Hist. Soc. 

 of Newcast. vol. i. p. 292. ' Id. Illust. vol. n. p. 383. pi. 58**. 



