THE HOODED MERGANSERS. 55 



and diving. I have never seen one on land, but I once saw a 

 number asleep on the water about mid- day in March. 



"They feed entirely under water. I have examined many 

 without ever finding any vegetable matter in their gizzards, or 

 anything but small fish and water-insects, chiefly a kind of 

 cricket (?), and these they pursue under water with great 

 rapidity, as may be guessed by watching in clear water a hard- 

 pressed, slightly- winged bird : when turning, it dives under the 

 boat. No Duck can touch them at diving ; even Grebes and 

 Cormorants, and I have watched both perform the same 

 manoeuvre, are scarcely so rapid in their movements under 

 water. They use their wings in diving, though they do not 

 spread them fully, so that you must not judge of their per- 

 formance by birds with wings injured above the carpal joint, 

 but where the injury is merely on the carpus, sufficient to 

 prevent flight, but not otherwise serious, their diving is a thing 

 to watch." 



Nest. Placed in a hollow tree. 



Eggs, Seven or eight in number, and scarcely to be told 

 from those of the Wigeon. Mr. Seebohm says that they can 

 be distinguished by their heavier weight, and Wolley also 

 found that they were of a smoother texture. They are creamy 

 white in colour. Axis, 1-9-2-1 inches; diam., i'45- 1 '55- 



Down. Very pale, ashy-white and much mixed with tiny 

 scraps of wood from the interior of the tree in which the nest 

 is placed. The filamentous tips to the down are also ashy- 

 white, and there is an indistinct white "eye "-spot. 



THE HOODED MERGANSERS. GENUS LOPHODYTES. 



Lophodytes^ Reichenb. Av. Syst. Nat. p. ix. (1852). 



Type, L. cucullatus (Linn.). 



Count Salvador! separates the Hooded Mergansers from the 

 True Mergansers on account of the form of the serrations in 

 the bill. In both mandibles these are short and blunt, and 

 are not distinctly inclined backwards at the tips. The genus 

 Lophodytes is distinguished from the Smew by having the tar- 

 sus shorter than the culmen* 



