470 AKATIDJE. 



Bill lighter or darker red, more or less dusky on the ridge and 

 the nail ; irides reddish brown ; legs and feet vermilion (Hume). 



Length about 25 ; tail 4-25 ; wing 9-5 ; tarsus 2 ; bill from 

 gape 2'7 : in females the wing measures about 9. 



Distribution. The north temperate region, the American race 

 being regarded as distinct by some ornithologists. The Indian 

 bird is distinguished by Salvadori as M. comatus, but although just 

 recognizable as a rule by its slightly shorter bill and rather 

 narrower black borders to the tertiary quills in the male, the 

 differences are scarcely of specificvalue. The head of the female 

 is duller and browner in the Indian specimens preserved in the 

 Hume collection than in most European skins, but this may be 

 due to almost all the Indian birds having been collected in the 

 cold season. This Indian race breeds throughout the higher 

 Himalayas and in winter migrates to the base of the range, the 

 hills south of Assam, and the country between the Ganges and 

 Godavari. A specimen has recently been obtained by Mr. Gates 

 from Myitkyina in Northern Burma, and a female was shot by 

 Mr. Aitken on the east side of Bombay harbour in December 

 1886. The last may possibly, however, have belonged to the next 

 species, which has occurred at Karachi, whilst M. castor has not 

 been recorded previously from Western India. 



Habits, <$fc. In winter the Goosander occurs usually in small 

 parties, frequenting rivers and lakes. In summer it is found in 

 pairs on the Himalayas at 10,000 feet and upwards. It rises 

 heavily from the water, but when on the wing flies well and 

 swiftly ; it lives on fish, which it obtains by diving. The eggs 

 have not been as yet obtained within Indian limits ; the nest is on 

 the ground or the stump of a tree, and from 7 to 12 buffy-white 

 eggs are laid. 



1614. Merganser serrator. The Red-breasted Merganser. 



Mergus serrator, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 208 (1766) ; Hume fy Marsh. 



Game JB. iii, p. 305; Hume, S. F. ix, p. 268; Barnes, Birds Bom. 



p. 416. 

 Mergus castor, apud Hume, S. F. iv, p. 496 ; Butler, S. F. v, pp. 291 r 



323 ; nee Linn. 

 Merganser serrator, Salvadori, Cat. B. M. xxvii, p. 479. 



Coloration. Male. Head and upper neck black glossed with 

 green except in front, the crest longer than in M. castor a collar 

 of white round the neck, interrupted behind by a black longitudinal 

 median stripe ; upper breast and sides rufous, blotchily streaked 

 with black ; the black back is much broader than in M. castor, and 

 just in front of the shoulder there is a patch of white feathers, 

 each surrounded by a broad black border, behind these the sides 

 and the lower back, rump, and tail-coverts are white with finely 

 undulating black lines ; tail brownish grey ; marginal wing-covert s 

 brown ; primaries, outer secondaries, and last tertiaries blackis b 



