The Red-breasted Merganser 

 (Mergus Serrator). 



THE Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus Serrator). It 

 makes its nest, like the Eider, with its own down 

 a few yards from the water of the more retired 

 Highland lochs. When the female commences sitting she 

 is left by the drake, which retires and completes its moult, 

 after having assumed a somewhat duck-like appearance. 



In form and colouring the female resembles in many 

 points the Dun diver, but the handsome male has the head 

 and neck greenish black, mingled with a few reddish- 

 brown feathers; the occiput adorned with a long loose 

 crest ; the chin yellowish white ; the lower neck and upper 

 breast reddish-brown ; the back, sides of the breast, 

 scapulars, and quills, black; the lower part of the back, 

 rump, tail, and flanks, grey, the latter with narrow 

 irregular bars of black; the breast, belly, and vent, pure 

 white ; the greater wing-covers and secondaries, white, each 

 with a black base, which forms a double bar across the 

 wing; the tertials white, with a narrow edging of black; 

 but a most conspicuous marking is seen in a few rather 

 large feathers which spring from either side of the breast 

 above the bend of the wing, and over which, while the 

 bird is at rest, they fold these are pure white, with a 

 margin all round of deep black. The colours are more 

 distinctly marked in the breeding season, as with most 

 birds. 



148 



