ONTARIO. 



ORDER ANSERES. LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS. 



FAMILY ANATID^E. DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS. 



SUBFAMILY MERGING. MERGANSERS. 



GENUS MERGANSER BRISSON. 

 31. MERGANSER AMERICANUS (CASS.). 129 



American Merganser. 



Nostrils nearly median ; frontal feathers reaching beyond those on sides 

 of bill; male with the head scarcely crested, glossy green; back and wings 

 black and white, latter crossed by one black bar: under parts salmon-colored; 

 length, about 24; wing, n , female smaller, occipital crest better developed, 

 but still flimsy ; head and neck reddish-brown ; back parts of the male ashy 

 gray ; less white on the wing ; under parts less tinted with salmon. 



HAB. North America generally, breeding south to the Northern United 

 States. 



Nest on the ground, built of weeds and moss, and lined with down. Eggs 

 six to eight, buff or dark cream. 



This is the largest, and by many considered the handsomest 

 of the three Saw-bills which visit us ; it is never plentiful, being 

 more a bird of the sea-coast, but is usually seen singly or in 

 pairs among the flocks of waterfowl which crowd up from the 

 South as soon as the ice begins to move in the lakes and rivers 

 in spring. 



In the fall they are again observed in company with their 

 young, which at this stage all resemble the female in plumage. 

 The flesh of the Saw-bills being fishy, the gunners often allow 

 them to pass when a Blue-bill or a Red-head would not get so 

 easily off. 



32. MERGANSER SERRATOR (LINN.). 130. 

 Red-breasted Merganser. 



Nostrils sub-basal ; frontal feathers not reaching beyond those on sides of 

 bill ; a long, thin, pointed crest in both sexes. Smaller than the last ; wing, 

 8-9 ; general coloration, sexual difference the same, but the male with the 

 jugulum rich reddish-brown, black-streaked, the sides conspicuously finely 

 waved with black, a white, black-bordered mark in front of the wing, and the 

 wing crossed by two black bars. 



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