DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS. 221 



water, but often flaps along the surface for several 

 yards before that is accomplished. 



The Red-breasted Merganser breeds in May, the 

 eggs being laid during the latter half of that month, 

 and the first half of June. Although not gregarious 

 during this period, it is, at any rate, social, for 

 several pairs may be found nesting very close 

 together, if keeping somewhat to themselves. An 

 island is always preferred to the mainland. The 

 nest is placed under a rock or bank, in a rabbit 

 burrow, or amongst dense heather and gorse at no 

 great distance from the water. In many cases the 

 eggs are laid upon the bare ground, in others a few 

 dry vegetable fragments are collected into a slight 

 hollow, but a plentiful bed of down gradually 

 acccumulates around them. From eight to twelve 

 olive-gray eggs are laid, upon which the female 

 alone sits. The male, however, is in attendance on 

 the water near by, and the duck joins him there 

 during the short periods that she leaves her charge 

 to feed and to bathe. If alarmed, the hen bird 

 slips off very quietly. When the young are hatched 

 the drake retires to moult, and the female brings 

 them up unaided. Outside our islands this Mer- 

 ganser is widely distributed over the northern parts 

 of Europe, Asia, and America, drawing southwards 



in winter. 



GOOSANDER. 



As this beautiful Duck, the Mergus merganser 

 of ornithologists, not only occurs in some numbers 



