348 MERGANSERS 



often, on dull days when the lookout in a blind is somewhat relaxed, and 

 the sportsman is consoling himself for lack of birds with possibly a nap 

 or the lunch basket, the first intimation of the presence of a 'hairy crown' 

 is given by one or more flashing close overhead with a startling whirr, 

 and then as rapidly disappearing in the distance. ... It rises from the 

 water without any preliminary motions, and is on the wing at once, and 

 in full flight, the pinions moving with a rapidity that almost creates a 

 blur on either side of the body, the outline of the wing disappearing." 

 Though this merganser does eat a certain amount of vegetable mat- 

 ter its food comes mainly from the animal kingdom, and consists of 

 small fishes, frogs, tadpoles, crawfish, beetles, caddis-fly larvae and the 

 like. It is an expert diver and is adept at chasing and catching small 

 fish, and obtains much of its food from the bottom of the fresh water 

 ponds and streams which it inhabits. 



American Merganser 



Mergus merganser americanus 

 (mer-gus, mer-gan-ser, a-mer-i-kan-us) 



Colour Plates Nos. 28 and 29. Downy Young No. 35. 



SCIENTIFIC NAME 



Mergus, Latin, meaning a diver; merganser, from Latin mergus, meaning a 

 diver, and anser, meaning a goose; americanus, Latinized form, meaning of America. 



COLLOQUIAL NAMES 



IN GENERAL USE: Fish duck; sawbill. IN LOCAL USE: Bec-scie (meaning sawbill, 

 sometimes misspelled "bexie"); big fish-duck; big pond-sheldrake (the term "sheldrake" 

 has no reference to shells or molluscs, but means a drake dappled or spotted with 

 white); big sawbill; big sheldrake; bracket; bracket sheldrake; breakhorn; Canadian 

 canvasback; diver, dun-diver; fis; fisher; fisher duck; fisherman; fisherman duck; 

 fishing duck; fresh-water sheldrake; gony; goosander; great lake sheldrake; harle; 

 Irish canvasback; morocco-head; North Carolina sheldrake; pheasant; pied fisherman; 

 pond sheldrake; river sheldrake; sawbuck; sheldrake; shelduck; shellbird; swamp 

 sheldrake; spike; stud; tweezer; velvet breast; weaser; weaser sheldrake; wheezer; 

 winter sheldrake; wood duck; woozer. 



DESCRIPTION 



ADULT MALE. WINTER PLUMAGE: Head and upper neck, metallic greenish 

 black; crown feathers elongated but not forming noticeable crest; lower neck, white 

 with salmon-pink tinge on hindneck; a narrow black line from foreback along 

 back of neck, not reaching black of head; bill (fig. 54), red, dusky along ridge 

 and tip, narrow, long and nearly cylindrical; nail across entire tip; nostril in middle 

 third; edges of upper and lower mandibles with sharp pointed "teeth," inclined 

 backwards; feathering of upper mandible extends forward about equal to that of 

 lower mandible; inside of mouth, orange yellow; eye, dark brown. Body. Back, 

 black; hindback and rump, ashy grey; scapulars, inner, black, outer, creamy or 

 white; chest, sides and breast, white, tinted with pinkish salmon, which fades to 



