AMERICAN MERGANSER 21 



merganser,^ or goosander, undoubtedly shot yesterday 

 by the Fast-Day sportsmen, and I take a small flattened 

 shot from its wing, — flattened against the wing-bone, 

 apparently. The wing is broken, and it is shot through 

 the head. 2 It is a perfectly fresh and very beautiful bird, 

 and as I raise it, I get sight of its long, slender vermil- 

 ion bill (color of red sealing-wax) and its clean, bright- 

 orange legs and feet, and then of its perfectly smooth 

 and spotlessly pure white breast and belly, tinged with a 

 faint salmon (or tinged with a delicate buff inclining to 

 salmon). . . . My bird is 25|^ inches long and 35 in alar 

 extent ; from point of wing to end of primaries, 11 inches. 



It is a great diver and does not mind the cold. It 

 appears admirably fitted for diving and swimming. Its 

 body is flat, and its tail short, flat, compact, and wedge- 

 shaped ; its eyes peer out a slight slit or semi-circle in the 

 skin of the head ; and its legs are flat and thin in one di- 

 rection, and the toes shut up compactly so as to create 

 the least friction when drawing them forward, but their 

 broad webs spread them three and a half inches when 

 they take a stroke. The web is extended three eighths 

 of an inch beyond the inner toe of each foot. There are 

 very conspicuous black teeth-like serrations along the 

 edges of its bill, and this also is roughened so that it 

 may hold its prey securely. 



The breast appeared quite dry when I raised it from 

 the water. 



1 [The American species, of course, now known as Mergus americanus ] 



2 The chief wound was in a wing, which was broken. I afterward 

 took three small shot from it, which were flattened against the bill's 

 base and perhaps (?) the quills' shafts. 



