192 THE RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 



ining the unguis or extremity of the upper mandible, which 

 will be found to be white or whitish in the males, and red 

 or reddish in the females. The young males begin to 

 assume the spring dress in the beginning of February, but 

 they do not acquire their full size and beauty until the 

 second year." (Audubon.) 



The male of this species is 24 inches long, with bill car- 

 mine; head, crest and upper part of the neck black, with a 

 green gloss; the rest of the neck white, with a black line 

 adown from the crest; upper part of the back velvety black, 

 lower part of the back and upper tail coverts an elegant gray, 

 delicately penciled with black and white; wings and scapular 

 black, finely marked with white; breast above a light chest- 

 nut-red, mixed with black; under parts white. He is truly 

 beautiful. The female, having a less perfect crest than the 

 male, is brown or brownish-ash above, the feathers edged 

 with lighter; the sides of the head and neck reddish; the 

 secondaries and greater wing coverts white, thin dark bases, 

 forming dark bands on the wing; the under parts are white, 

 the breast being tinged with gray; the iris is red, and the 

 feet and bill are nearly so. 



As is the case with other Mergansers, the male of this 

 species has a curious enlargement and modification of the 

 wind-pipe, the final cause of which seems difficult to explain. 



In the more easterly migrations, and also in the breeding 

 habitat above designated, the Red-breast is much more 

 common than the rest of the Mergansers. 



The long, slender, cylindrical, retrorse-toothed bill of the 

 Mergansers, commonly called Fish Ducks, distinguishes the 

 group clearly from the Ducks proper. Their diet also is 

 more exclusively fishy, thus rendering their flesh unsavory. 

 Their long, slender bodies, and the hindward position of 

 their feet, specially adapt them to the pursuit of their prey 



