DIRECTORY TO BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 121 



white beneath strongly tinged with salmon : iris, red ; bill 

 and feet, orange, fig. 137. Female, head and neck, reddish 

 with a well defined line of demarkation between this color 

 and the white below; entire back, bluish-ash. i r oung, simi- 

 lar to female. Breeds from Penn. and the mountains of Col. 

 nnd Gal. northward, in May, nesting in holes of trees ; mi- ; 

 grates southward in Sep. and Oct. to winter from the Middle 

 States southward to the Gulf of Mexico and more scattering- 

 ly north to Mass. ; comes north in April. Common, on fresh 

 waters and occasionally found on salt water, occurring an 

 small flocks. Eggs, 6 to 10, pale buff. Kise obliquely from 

 the water into swift, direct flight with very rapid wing-beats ; 

 Cries, harsh but duck-like. 



2. RED-BREAST- Fig. 137. 



ED MERGANSER, M. 

 SERRATOR. Differs from 

 1 in being smaller, 

 22.00 ; the males have a \ 

 well-d e f i n e d crest of 

 lanceolate feathers,^ 

 the breast and sides of - - 

 neck are buff streaked 

 with black, and the 

 lower parts are creamy- IV , A, a, 1. 1-10. 



white, fig. 138; the female has the throat less white and the 

 reddish of the head and neck is not separated from the white 

 by a well-defined line of demarkation. Breeds chiefly north 

 of the U. S., placing its nest on the ground; migrates south 

 in Oct. to winter from N. E. to Fla., occurring mainly on the 

 coast often in large flocks; goes north in April. A few occur 

 on fresh waters. Eggs, deposited in May, greenish-brown, 

 b. Crested Mergansers. Lophodytes. 



Bill not as distinctly toothed as in a, and the teeth are 

 not as much inclined backward, fig. 139; head, crested. 



