356 NATATORES. 



weighs about four pounds, and is twenty-eight inches long 

 and thirty-eight in the stretch of the wings. The feet are 

 red; the bill rather larger in the gape than that of the 

 former species, but not quite so long on the ridge, rather 

 more slender, slightly recurved, but very much hooked down- 

 ward at the tip, and thickly toothed in the margins ; the 

 colour dusky at the nostrils, down the ridge, and on the nail 

 at the tip ; red in the rest of the external surface ; and the 

 insides of the gape orange. The head, crest, (which is less 

 produced, but more elevated, than that of the last species, or 

 of the female in this,) and upper part of the neck, deep green, 

 passing into black on the chin and fore-neck ; lower neck, 

 shoulders, breast, and all the under part, white, with a tinge 

 of salmon colour. Back black, becoming greyish at the 

 rump ; tail grey, consisting of eighteen pointed feathers ; 

 scapulars next the back black, those next the wings white ; 

 quills and coverts brownish black, except the middle secon- 

 daries and the terminal parts of those coverts which form a 

 white wing spot. The female has the head and neck (the 

 former with a long loose crest) rust colour ; the upper part 

 greyish and the under yellowish white. She is the " Dun 

 diver " of authors ; and the immature male, which resembles 

 her in colour, is the male of the same. The nest is placed 

 in situations similar to that of the red-throated diver ; the 

 eggs are from eight to twelve, and white, with a slight tinge 

 of yellow. 



THE HOODED MERGANSEK (MergilS CUCulltttus). 



The hooded merganser is an American species, frequenting 

 the fresh waters of that country much more than the sea ; 

 retiring to the north in summer to breed, but in the winter 

 ranging as far southward perhaps as the Floridas. In Britain 

 it appears only as a very rare straggler. 



