ANATINJ5 — THE DUCKS — MERGUS. 



115 



When badly wounded it has been known to dive to the bottom and cling to the grass. 

 In the spring it again assembles in large flocks, preparatory to leaving for its sum- 

 mer residence. At that season it generally flies along the bottom land, at a short 

 distance from the shore, and may be readily killed by hunters concealed in holes cut 

 in the bank for that purpose. 



The Merganser is very tenacious of life. Even when fairly shot down, if the lead 

 has not reached a vital part, the next moment the bird will be gone. Giraud men- 

 tions a striking instance in which a young male Goosander had been shot, and picked 

 up apparently lifeless, and then thrown into the bottom of a boat. There it renuiined 

 apparently dead until he had sailed about two miles, when, to his great surprise, the 

 l)ird flew off as if nothing had happened, leaving a pool of blood in the place where 

 it had been lying. Although this species feeds almost exclusively on fish, yet in the 

 fall of the year its flesh is quite tolerable ; but in the spring it is oily, and has a rancid 

 taste. In calm weather the Goosander has been known to collect in large parties for 

 the purpose of diving for amusement. When thus engaged, at a given signal they 

 all pass under the water, and some minutes elapse before any of them rise to the sur- 

 face. In this Avay these birds Avill spend whole hours, apparently much di'liglited with 

 the frolic. In overcast and in blustering weather they keep moving about all the 

 (lay, and in heavy storms they shelter themselves in coves, and are occasionally seen 

 steering up the small creeks to take refuge in the swamps. 



Mr. Dresser met with this Goosander in Southwestern Texas in the winter, and 

 three specimens were procured near Fort Stockton. Audubon also obtaimnl birds of 

 this species in Texas, in April, 1837. They are rarely, if ever, seen in South Carolina 

 or Florida. 



According to the observations of Messrs. G. A. Boardman, J. Elliot Cabot, and 

 others, who have found this species breeding, it invariably nests in the hollows of 

 trees. Audubon was either mistaken in his account of the nesting of this IMerganser, 

 or else he met with a very exceptional instance, since he describes it as nesting on the 

 ground among rushes, in the manner of the scrrator, having a large nest raised seven 

 or eight inches above the surface. 



Mr. Nuttall, in May, 1832, saAV in the Suscjuehanna River, near Duntown, a female 

 Merganser with a brood of eight young ; but it required the utmost exertion on his 

 part to overtake them. When the young, becoming fatigued, crowded round their 

 parent, she took them on her back, and thus bore them along. The young Mergansers, 

 though not larger than the egg of a Goose, were already elegant epitomes of the 

 female parent, being generally gray, with rufous head and neck, and having the 

 rudiments of a growing crest. 



In Southern Wisconsin — as Professor Kumlien tells me — this species is quite 

 connnon early in the spring and late in the fall, and on Eock River, wherever that 

 stream is not closed by ice, it is found all the winter. 



Dr. Kennerly mentions frequently observing this species at Boca Grande, in Chi- 

 luiahua, and elsewhere along the Conalitos River, in large flocks. He found the birds 

 exceedingly fat and heavy, but not at all palatable. One specimen when caught had 

 in its throat several fish three or four inches in length. 



The eggs of this species are of a buffy ivory white, usually from ten to twelve in 

 immber, and measure 2.55 inches in length by 1.75 in breadth. 





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