168 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



though I think there used to be one, but I suppose 

 it has got moth-eaten and been thrown away. 



146. KED-BREASTED MERGANSER. Mergns ser- 

 rator, Linnaeus. French, " Harle Huppe." Like 

 the Goosander, the Eed-breasted Merganser is 

 a regular and by no means uncommon autumn and 

 winter visitant to the Channel Islands. It seems 

 to me, as I said before, that these birds seek the 

 more sheltered bays during wild squally weather 

 more than the Goosanders do ; not but what they 

 can keep the sea well even in bad weather, but I 

 have never seen or shot the Goosander close to the 

 shore seeking smooth water, as I have done the 

 Eed-breasted Merganser. The greater number of 

 Eed-breasted Mergansers killed in the Channel 

 Islands which I have seen have been either females 

 or males that had not assumed the full adult 

 plumage in fact, in that state of plumage in 

 which they are the " Dun Diver " of Bewick ; full- 

 plumaged adult males do, however, occur as well as 

 females and young males, or males in a state of 

 change. 



Professor Ansted includes the Eed-breasted 

 Merganser in his list, but only marks it as occur- 

 ring in Guernsey. There are two specimens in the 

 Museum a male in full plumage and a female or 

 young male. 



