156 ANATID^E 



Nest. The nest is generally situated on marine or fresh- 

 water islands, sometimes on the mainland, and always near 

 water ; it is as a rule well concealed amid coarse herbage, 

 such as tall grasses, nettles, scrub, or meadow-sweet ; or it 

 is sometimes built in tangled brushwood, under heather- 

 tufts, or in the recess of an overhanging bank. But, on 

 the other hand, I have found this bird nesting in quite 

 exposed situations. For example, on an island in Lough 

 Sheelin, co. Cavan, I found a nest built in a shallow 

 recess between a few rocks, with no vegetation to hide 

 the sitting-bird. 



The nest is formed of dry grass, weeds, and small bits of 

 twigs, and is lined with down. The eggs, eight to twelve in 

 number, are of a light muddy yellowish-brown, slightly 

 tinged in some instances with green. Incubation takes 

 place about the beginning of June. 



In the north-west of Scotland, including the island- 

 groups, as well as in Ireland, this bird is a common nesting- 

 species ; in fact, in Ireland, it is one of the most numerous 

 of our resident Ducks, though far from being as abundant 

 as the Mallard (Ussher). 



Geographical distribution. Abroad, the Ked-breasted 

 Merganser nests in Temperate and Sub-arctic Europe, Asia 

 and North America, migrating in the winter to the waters 

 of Southern Europe, Northern Africa, eastward as far as 

 Japan, and westward along the Atlantic sea-board to the 

 Bermudas. 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. Head, crest (the plumes 

 of which are much longer and more filamentous than those 

 of the Goosander), and upper neck, glossy greenish-black ; 

 lower neck, white, intersected behind by a black line con- 

 tinuous with that of the back ; upper breast and lower 

 neck, reddish-brown, streaked with black ; lower breast 

 and abdomen, white ; flanks, upper and under tail-coverts, 

 finely pencilled with grey ; inner scapulars, black ; outer 

 ones, white ; wing-coverts, chiefly white, barred across with 

 narrow black lines ; primaries and tail, brownish-black ; at 

 the bend of the wing is an ornamental tuft of white 

 feathers, margined with black. 



Adult male, post-nuptial or eclipse. Somewhat re- 



