380 NATATORES. MERGUS. MERGANSER. 



Upon Loch Awe, in the Western Highlands, they are com- 

 mon, and their nests have been repeatedly found by Sir 

 WILLIAM JARDINE and myself upon the several islands that 

 Nest, &c. beautify its western extremity. The nest is always situated 

 a few yards beyond the highest water-line, frequently beside 

 a large stone covered with brambles, and coarse herbage, or 

 under the shelter of some thick bush. It is composed of 

 dried grass, small roots, &c., intermixed with feathers and a 

 quantity of the down of the bird, which (as in the case of the 

 Eider, and some other ducks), appears to be added to as in- 

 cubation advances. The eggs are from seven to eleven in 

 number, of a colour intermediate between cream-yellow and 

 wood-brown, and in size and shape like those of the Com- 

 mon Duck. The bird sits remarkably close, and will some- 

 times allow itself to be almost trodden upon, before it will 

 quit the nest. As soon as incubation commences, the old 

 males desert the females (a habit, indeed, which may be ob- 

 served in many species of the Anatidce), and assemble in 

 companies of three or four together. About this time, also, 

 their plumage undergoes a considerable change, losing the 

 deep colouring of the head and back, which parts become of 

 a dingy cinereous grey, that is retained till the general (or 

 autumnal) moult commences. This Merganser is an excel- 

 lent diver, remaining for a long time submerged, during which 

 it makes rapid progress. In this way it frequently escapes 

 when wounded, merely raising its bill above water to take 

 breath, and again dipping down, without causing any per- 

 Food. ceptible disturbance of the surface. It feeds principally up- 

 on fish ; and in two individuals that I dissected, and which 

 were killed at the mouth of a small rivulet, flowing into 

 Budle Bay, on the Northumbrian shore, I found the oeso- 

 phagus and stomach gorged with a quantity of small eels, 

 not exceeding two or three inches in length, and, as far as I 

 could judge, of the common species. This bird is widely 

 distributed throughout the northern parts of Europe, North- 

 ern Asia, and North America, retiring to high latitudes 



