RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 393 



white ; great coverts and secondaries black at the base, 

 the outer halves white, forming with the smaller coverts 

 three conspicuous white bands on the wing ; primary 

 quill-feathers brownish-black ; tertials white, edged with 

 black ; lower portion of the back, the sides, flanks, rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts grey ; tail-feathers stiif, rather 

 pointed, and of a uniform brownish-ash colour ; lower part 

 of the neck on the front and sides pale chestnut-brown, 

 streaked, and otherwise varied with black ; breast, belly, 

 and under tail-coverts white ; legs and toes reddish-orange, 

 the membranes darker reddish-brown. The whole length 

 full twenty-two inches. From the carpal joint to the 

 end of the longest quill-feather ten inches. 



Females are rather smaller than males, and have the 

 head and the neck behind reddish-brown, darkest on the 

 crown of the head, the occipital feathers elongated ; all the 

 back, scapulars, and small wing-coverts umber-brown ; 

 greater coverts and secondaries dark brownish-black, 

 ending with white, forming two white bands ; primaries 

 and tertials dark brownish-black ; upper tail-coverts and 

 tail-feathers brown-ash colour ; neck in front mottled with 

 reddish and pale brown, on a white ground ; all the under 

 surface of the body white. Whole length about twenty- 

 one inches. 



Young birds resemble adult females during their first 

 winter. Males, however, in any state of plumage may 

 be ascertained by passing the finger and thumb down the 

 neck, feeling along the line of the trachea ; the male has an 

 enlargement of the tube before it passes into the body ; the 

 tube of the trachea in the female is uniform in its size 

 throughout its whole length. Young males do not obtain 

 their fine plumage till after their second autumn moult, 

 and old males from the time they desert the females till 



