56 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



I. THE HOODED MERGANSER. LOPHODYTES CUCULLATUS. 



Mergus cucullatus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 207 (1766) ; B. O. U. 

 List Br. B p. 137 (1883) ; Seebohm, Br. B. iii. p. 633 

 (1885) ; Saunders, ed. Yarr. Br. B. iv. p. 509 (1885) ; ed. 

 Man. Br. B. p. 485 (1889). 



Merganser cucullatus, Macg. Br. B. v. p. 225 (1852). 



Lophodytes cucullatus^ Salvad. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 468 

 ' 



Adult Male. General colour above black, with a beautiful 

 semicircular crest on the head ; the anterior part of this crest 

 black, the posterior half white, tipped with black, the white 

 overspreading the hinder part of the crown and the ear- 

 coverts ; scapulars and wing-coverts black, those near the 

 bend of the wing brown and the outer median coverts drab, 

 forming a large patch on the wing ; greater coverts black, 

 tipped with white ; quills dark brown, the secondaries blackish 

 internally, white externally, forming a speculum ; the inner 

 secondaries black and slightly sickle-shaped, most of them 

 with a median streak of white down the feather; rump and 

 upper tail-coverts rather browner than the rest of the back ; 

 tail ashy ; lores, sides of face, and throat black ; remainder of 

 under surface from the fore-neck downwards pure white, 

 stretching backwards in a half collar on the sides of the 

 neck, and separated by black on the sides of the chest from 

 a second crescentic band of white on the sides of the upper 

 breast, the feathers being tipped with black; sides of body 

 and flanks ruddy-brown, inclining to chestnut on the latter, 

 with numerous fine wavy lines of dusky-blackish ; under tail- 

 coverts white, freckled with grey ; axillaries and central under 

 wing-coverts white, those round the edge of the wing dusky- 

 brown ; bill black ; feet yellowish-brown ; iris bright yellow. 

 Total length, 18-5 inches; culmen, 1*6; wing, 7-5; tail, 3*6; 

 tarsus, 1*3. 



Adult Female. Smaller than the male, but nearly as fully 

 crested. General colour dark brown, the head and neck 

 lighter and more ashy-brown, the fore-neck more decidedly 

 ashy ; lores, upper throat, and a shade across the sides of the 

 head ashy-whitish ; crown brown, the crest being dull rufous, 

 whitish at the ends of the feathers ; wings dark brown, the 



