RED-BREASTED MERGANSER 361 



ing to their protecting coloring, crouch motionless among the rocks and 

 small plants." (Among the ducks the male Ruddy Duck always assists 

 in family cares, and the male Cinnamon Teal, occasionally, but none of 

 the others is recorded as doing so except the male of this species.) 



The courtship of this merganser, condensed from an account by the 

 same writer (in Bent, 1923), is as follows: The nuptial performance is 

 always at its best when several drakes are displaying their charms of 

 movement, voice, and plumage before a single duck, and each vies with 

 the other in the ardor of the courtship. The drake begins by stretching 

 up his long neck so that the white ring is much broadened, and the 

 metallic green head, with its long crest and its narrow red bill, makes a 

 conspicuous object. At once the bill is opened wide and the whole bird 



stiffly bobs or teeters, as if on a pivot, in such 

 a way the breast and the lower part of the 

 neck are immersed, while the tail and pos- 

 terior part of the body swing upward. All 

 the motions are stiffly executed, and suggest a 

 formal but ungraceful courtesy. The bobbing 

 up of the stern of the male is the more con- 

 spicuous as the wings are then apparently 



slightly arched upwards, so that the white secondary feathers are very 

 prominent. The drakes, in their eagerness, often rush through the water 

 with slightly opened wings, making the water foam about them. Again 

 they rise in the water with wings close to the side until they almost 

 seem to stand on tip-toe. 



The song, emitted when the bill is opened, is a difficult one to de- 

 scribe but is easily recognized when once heard and remains long in the 

 memory. It is a loud, rough, and purring, slightly double note, like 

 da-ah, but insusceptible of proper expression by syllables. The perform- 

 ance is repeated at frequent or infrequent intervals, depending on the 

 ardor and number of the suitors, and, no doubt, on the attitude of the 

 modestly dressed lady. Although the female merganser may remain 

 passive and coyly indifferent, as is the habit of her sex, she sometimes re- 

 sponds by a bobbing which is similar to that of the male, but of consid- 

 erably less range. She emits a single note at this time, somewhat louder 

 than that of the male and of a different quality, being decidedly rasping. 

 When the female responds in this manner she appears to be very excited. 

 The ardor of the drakes is correspondingly increased, if one may judge 

 by the frequent repetition of the love antics and notes, and by the fact 

 that they crowd about the duck. Every now and then she darts out her 

 neck and dashes at the ring of suitors, just as the female English sparrow 

 does under similar circumstances. 



Of its behaviour, Townsend (Bent, 1923) says: "Rising from the 

 water or ground is indeed always a laborious process, but especially so 

 in calm weather, when there is no wind to oppose its airplanes. There 

 is a noisy flapping of the wings and a strenuous pushing away of the 

 water or sand with the feet for some distance before the surface can be 



