AM ERIC AX ORXITHOLOGY. 115 



does not eat fish to nearly as great an extent as the larger Mergansers, 

 confinmg his diet more to shell-fish and tadpoles. On this account his 

 qualities as a table Duck are much better than many others and conse- 

 quently he is much sought after for that purpose. 



To my mind this is second in beauty only to the Wood Duck, with 

 which it is frequently confounded because of its tree-nesting habits.. 

 This Merganser is an expert diver and secures most of his food in that 

 manner. It seems as if it must have advanced a stage beyond the ex- 

 pert in the matter of diving, for it can dodge shot as well as any Grebe 

 ever could. They are exceedingly hard to approach after they have 

 once seen you. I have walked around a pond five or six times in trying: 

 to get on the same side with them, but to no avail, for every time I saw 

 them there was the same amount of water between us. 



They are also endowed with a knowledge of fire arms that is aston- 

 ishing. They appear to be able to tell whether a hunter carries a rifle 

 or a shotgun and also just what distance either of them will kill. When 

 happened upon unexpectedly, they will immediately dive and swim un- 

 der water until they are at a safe distance or behind some friendly log, 

 when they will come to the surface and swim away, always keeping some 

 tree or log between themselves and the watcher after the same fashion 

 as the Wild Turkey. I have waited for half an hour for a pair to come 

 out from behind a tree and then to my great surprise noticed them clear 

 across the pond. If they are in the least doubtful as to whether they 

 are out of range, they will sink low down in the water, leaving but their 

 bills and crests above the surface and in this way swim off. 



An acquaintance of mine shot one of these birds as he was flying from 

 one pond to another. He was only slightly winged and I secured him, 

 I had always known that these Ducks had a way of "playing possum," 

 when wounded, but as I had never had the opportunity to see this won- 

 derful feat, I watched him closely. It was certainly astonishing to see 

 how closely it would imitate a dead bird. Wishing that my brothers 

 might observe this I hastened homewards with the bird. 



When near the house my doij came out to meet nie and my Duck be- 

 gan fluttering as though nothing had ever happened to him. On enter- 

 ing the house the Duck "died again," and I called the whole family to 

 view this wonderful mimic of death. They came and I am sorry to say 

 that my own ruin cair.e with them, for on being asked to make the Duck 

 come to life again, 1 could not to save myself. He did not appear to 

 have been injured seriously, but he never came to life again. 



My diagnosis of his case was that he either died either from thinking 

 so hard that he was dead, or in order to make me out to be a story tel- 



