Mergansers 



Hooded Merganser 



(Lophodytes cucullatus) 



Called also: HAIRY HEAD; WATER PHEASANT; HOODED 



SHELLDRAKE 



Length 17 to 19 inches. 



Male Handsome semicircular black crest with fan shaped patch 

 of white on each side of greenish black head ; upper parts 

 black, changing to brown on lower back; lower fore neck, 

 wing linings, and underneath white, finely waved with 

 brownish red, and dusky on sides. Two crescent shaped 

 bands of black on sides of breast. A white speculum or 

 mirror on wing, crossed by two black bars. Bill bluish 

 black, with nostrils in basal half; eyes yellow. 



Female Smaller; dark ashy brown above, minutely barred with 

 black; more restricted and reddish brown crest, lacking the 

 white fan ; under parts white ; sides grayish brown. 



Young Similar to female, but without crest; no black and white 

 bars before wing; wings scarcely showing the white mirror. 



Range North America; nests throughout its range; winters in 

 southern United States, also in Cuba and Mexico. 



Season Chiefly a winter resident and visitor south of the Great 

 Lakes and New England. 



Unlike the two larger mergansers that delight in rushing 

 torrents and in making daring plunges beneath them, this 

 strikingly beautiful "water pheasant," as it is sometimes called, 

 chooses still waters, quiet lakes and mill-ponds for a more leisurely 

 hunt after small fish, mollusks, and water insects, adding to this 

 menu roots of aquatic plants, seeds, and grain. It is claimed that 

 this variation in the fish diet, and the consequent lack of harden- 

 ing of the muscles, make the merganser's flesh edible; and in spite 

 of its saw-toothed bill, the certain index of rank, fishy flesh, epi- 

 cures insist that this is an excellent table duck ; but in just what 

 state of rawness it is most delicious, who but an epicure may say ? 



"It seems an undue strain on the imagination, not to say 

 palate, to claim that any of the fish-eating ducks are edible," says 

 Mr. Shields. ' ' Men who kill everything they can find in the woods, 

 in the fields, or on the water, say all mergansers, coots and grebes 

 are good if properly cooked. When asked what this proper 

 method of cooking is, they say the birds should first be par- 



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