HOODED MERGANSER. 633 



MERGUS CUCULLATUS. 



HOODED MERGANSER. 



(PLATE 67.) 



Merganser virginianus cristatus, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 258 (1760). 



Mergus cucullatus, Linn. Syst.. Nat. i. p. 207 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Nuttall, Audubon, Swainson, (Baird, Brewer, Sf Ridgway), &c. 

 Lophodytes cucullatus (Linn.), Reichenbach, Syst. Ac. p. ix (1852). 



The earliest known British example of the Hooded Merganser was a 

 young female killed at Yarmouth in the winter of 1829 (Selby, 111. Brit. 

 Orn. ii. p. 383). A second immature example was killed in the Menai 

 Straits, in the winter of 1830-31 (Eyton, Hist. Rarer Brit. B. p. 75). 

 Yarrell adds two alleged occurrences on unsatisfactory evidence which it is 

 not necessary to quote. An adult male is said to have been shot in Norfolk 

 about the year 1838 (Blyth, ' Naturalist/ iii. p. 413). An example was 

 obtained in winter, about the year 1840, at Dingle Bay, by Dr. Chute 

 (Thompson, B. of Ireland, iii. p. 161). A second Irish example, an im- 

 mature female, was obtained on a lake near Knockdriu Castle, co. Meath, 

 but no date is given of its capture (Watters, B. of Ireland, p. 215). A 

 pair were procured, in the severe frost of December 1878, in Cork Harbour; 

 and another example, in the yet more severe weather of January 1881, on 

 the north coast of Kerry (Payne-Gall wey, 'Fowler in Ireland/ p. 121). 

 An example supposed to have been obtained in Caithness some time before 

 the year 1811 (Gray, B. of West of Scotl. p. 398) can scarcely be accepted 

 as evidence of the occurrence of this bird in Scotland; nor can the alleged 

 occurrence of three examples in the Firth of Forth, which were seen but 

 not obtained on the 5th of May 1853 (Newton, ' Ibis/ 1867, p. 239). The 

 statement that a pair were killed in the neighbourhood of Leeds (Gould, 

 B. of Great Brit. pt. 10) is unaccompanied by any details of capture or 

 proof of correct identification, and may be dismissed as more than doubt- 

 ful ; whilst the assertion that a pair were shot near Sheerness in March 

 1870 (Mathew, < Zoologist/ 1870, p. 2182) was contradicted by the writer 

 himself six years afterwards (Mathew, 'Zoologist/ 1876, p. 4958). 



The geographical distribution of the Hooded Merganser on the American 

 continent is almost exactly the same as its congeners. It breeds from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, from about lat. 45 to the Arctic circle, wintering 

 in the United States, Mexico, and the West Indies. It has occurred twice 

 on the Bermudas, but is not known to have visited Greenland, Iceland, or 

 the continent of Europe. 



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