THE RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. '99 



loose wall. The rich reddish cream colour of the eggs is, he says, in some 

 strongly tinged with green. 



Their food consists of small fish, from both salt and fresh-water, shrimps, 

 marine worms, and crabs. Mr. E. W. Gunn, of Ipswich, took from the stomach 

 of an adult male, shot on January i6th, 1889, at Walton-on-the-Naze, twenty- three 

 sprats, three inches long, and one small whiting, packed like sardines in a tin. 

 In the west of Scotland and the Isles, the local Gaelic name has reference to their 

 partiality for sand-eels on which they chiefly feed. 



The adult male has the filamentous double crest, the head and upper neck, 

 black, with green and purple reflections ; rest of neck white, with a band of black 

 running down behind ; lower neck with a deep belt of reddish-brown, splashed and 

 spotted with black ; rest of lower parts, including breast, cream- white, tinged with 

 buff; lower neck, behind and fore part of back, black; lower back a light ash- 

 grey, undulated with black ; there is a tuft of feathers at the shoulder, white, 

 broadly edged with black ; inner scapulars black, the outer white ; speculum white, 

 crossed with black ; bill orange-red ; irides red ; tarsi and feet orange. Length 

 twenty-two inches ; weight two to three Ibs. 



The female closely resembles the female Goosander, but is quite one-third 

 smaller. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey says., the female of the Goosander has the throat 

 white, and in the Merganser this is reddish. The female Merganser has the back 

 brown, instead of blue-grey, as in the Goosander. 



After examining a series of skins of the Merganser, for the purpose of this 

 work, in my friend Mr. Caton Haigh's collection, I have come with him to the 

 conclusion that the male bird does not get his full adult plumage and double crest 

 till late in the fourth year. 



The trachea is very largely dilated at its lower extremity in the male ; that 

 of the female is uniform throughout its length. 



The flesh is rank and fishy, and unpalatable even to a hungry man ; Mergansers 

 are, however, seldom shot, since they rank among the wildest and shyest of water- 

 birds. A local name on the east coast is " Sawbill " ; this is the usual sobriquet 

 of the species in Western Scotland ; but in Shetland the bird is known as the 

 "Herald- Duck." 



