PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 291 



Madeira; while in Asia it reaches Palestine, the Sinai Peninsula, the Persian Gulf, 

 Baluchistan, North India, China, Formosa, and Japan. In America it migrates 

 south to the Gulf coast, Lower California, Cuba, and the Bermudas. Casual on 

 Hawaii. [F. o. B. J.] 



3. Migration. A winter visitor and a bird of passage, but also a common 

 resident in many parts of Scotland and Ireland. As a winter visitor it usually 

 arrives between 15th September and 20th October, while the periods of passage 

 are from 3rd September to 31st October, but chiefly in September and early October, 

 and from 16th March to 14th May, but chiefly in early May (cf. Clarke, Studies in 

 Bird Migration, 1912, vol. i. pp. 136, 161). As a winter visitor it is not very common 

 in Yorkshire, but well known on the north of Kent and numerous in severe 

 weather, while North Wales is visited in small numbers (cf. Nelson, B. of Tories., 

 1907, p. 484 ; Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 374 ; and Forrest, Fauna of N. 

 Wales, 1907, p. 297). A common whiter bird in the Irish estuaries, and sometimes 

 seen in hundreds in severe weather (cf. Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, 

 p. 218). As already implied, the merganser is gregarious in winter, and occurs 

 chiefly in river estuaries. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nesting-sites vary considerably: as a rule the 

 nest is placed on the ground, sheltered by rank vegetation, heather, brushwood, 

 etc., sometimes in a thick bramble clump or cairn of loose stones, occasionally in a 

 rabbit-hole or a hollow in the face of a cliff or old wall, and generally well hidden 

 and sheltered to some extent from above. Exceptionally a nest is found quite 

 exposed, and in Iceland it breeds far in among loose rocks, while in Lapland the 

 deserted huts of the peasants are sometimes occupied. The duck makes a scanty 

 nest of bents or dead bracken and a few leaves or twigs, lining it as incubation 

 proceeds with grey or drab coloured down with light centres and tips. (PI. LXIX.) 

 For feathers see PI. U and H. Noble in Brit. Birds, ii., pi. 2, fig. 18. They are white, 

 and decidedly smaller than those of the goosander. The approach to the nest is 

 by a well-trodden pad where the grass looks dead and faded, and is often a clue 

 to the nesting-site. The eggs as a rule range from about 7 to 12 in number, but 

 14 to 16 have been found in one nest, and in some cases were almost certainly 

 laid by one female. In colour they differ widely from those of the goosander, 

 and are drab or olive-grey as a rule, but occasionally light greyish stone 

 colour, and average in size (109 eggs) 2-52 x 1-78 in. [64-2 x 45-4 mm.]. (PI. S.) 

 Incubation is performed by the duck alone, and Hantzsch estimates the period at 

 four weeks. Full clutches may be found in Scotland in the last week of May and 



