L X X I. MERGANSE R. 



(Mergus serrator.} 



THE mother bird in this illustration was from a live one caught 

 unhurt in its nest by a little dog. After being taken home and 

 pourtrayed, it was let out of the window. The eggs of sea birds 

 do not require to be so constantly sat upon as those of land 

 birds. On a fine day the gulls are more often to be seen 

 standing beside the nest than sitting on the eggs. In bad 

 weather and at night they sit close, so I trust neither mother 

 nor eggs were any the worse for her short sojourn in the studio. 



The nest was like that in the picture, and had a fishy fume 

 perceptible at some distance. It contained eight or nine buff- 

 coloured eggs, surrounded by a roll of rather dirty grey down. 

 The nests are often placed on the top of a steep rock in a 

 heathery place, whence the young must be helped down to the 

 sea by their mothers, as they could not come down of themselves 

 at so early an age. They follow her in the sea, swimming and 

 diving with great activity almost as soon as hatched, sometimes 

 running with great speed on the top of the water with their 

 disproportionately large webbed feet acting as a support like 

 snow shoes, and leaving a white streak of spray behind them. 



The adult has the eyes bright red ; in the young they are 

 blue. Young creatures, both bird and beast, have often blue 

 eyes in their infancy, which turn to yellow-red, or hazel after- 

 wards ; some hazel, which turn yellow. I do not know if eyes 

 which are blue in the adult ever begin with a different colour. I 

 have seen in old people with hazel eyes a blue or grey tint beginning 

 round the outside edge of the dark brown iris, as if the colour were 

 fading or turning grey like the hair. The young hoodie crows that 

 I have seen had blue eyes ; the old ones have very dark hazel. 



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