RARER BRITISH BIRDS. 



75 



HOODED MERGANSER. 



Mergus Cuculatus. LINN^US. 



THE honour of having first recorded this most striking species 

 of Merganser as a straggler to our coasts, is, we believe, due to 

 Mr. Selby. His account will be found in the first volume of the 

 '' Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumber- 

 land, Durham, and Newcastle." The specimen recorded was 

 killed at Yarmouth, in the winter of L829 ; and in his " Illus- 

 trations of Ornithology" he mentions, that he has been informed, 

 that more instances have occurred, apparently females, or young 

 males in the garb of that sex. One specimen has also occurred 

 to ourselves, killed in the Menai Straits, near Bangor, in the 

 winter 1830-31, which we think is an immature male, as the 

 feathers of the crest are longer and more numerous than in 

 the female. 



