270 RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 



soon after their arrival, chiefly on dry spots of ground in the 

 islands; lay from eight to thirteen white eggs, the size of those 

 of a duck; the nest is made of withered grass, and lined with 

 the down of the breast. The young are of a dirty brown like 

 young goslins. In October they all depart southward to the 

 lakes, where they may have open water. 

 This species is twenty-two inches in length, and thirty-two 

 in extent; the bill is two inches and three quarters in length, 

 of the colour of bright sealing wax, ridged above with dusky; 

 the nail at the tip large, blackish, and overhanging; both man- 

 dibles are thickly serrated; irides red; head furnished with a 

 long hairy crest which is often pendent, but occasionally erect- 

 ed, as represented in the plate; this and part of the neck is black 

 glossed with green ; the neck under this for two or three inches 

 is pure white; ending in a broad space of reddish ochre spotted 

 with black, which spreads over the lower part of the neck and 

 sides of the breast; shoulders, back, and tertials deep velvetty 

 black, the first marked with a number of singular roundish 

 spots of white; scapulars white; wing coverts mostly white, 

 crossed by two narrow bands of black; primaries black, secon- 

 daries white, several of the latter edged with black; lower part 

 of the back, the rump and tail coverts gray speckled with black; 

 sides under the wings elegantly crossed with numerous waving 

 lines of black; belly and vent white; legs and feet red; the tail 

 dusky ash; the black of the back passess up the hind neck in a 

 narrow band to the head. 



The female is twenty -one inches in length, and thirty in ex- 

 tent; the crested head and part of the neck are of a dull sorrel 

 colour; irides yellow; legs and bill red, upper parts dusky slate; 

 wings black, greater coverts largely tipt with white, seconda- 

 ries nearly all white; sides of the breast slightly dusky; whole 

 lower parts pure white; the tail is of a lighter slate than the back. 

 The crest is much shorter than in the inale, and sometimes there 

 is a slight tinge of ferruginous on the breast. 



The windpipe of the male of this species is very curious, and 

 differs something from that of the Goosander. About two in- 



