THE MERGANSERS. 107 
well’ is generally returned by some of the party. Their course is in a 
straight line, with the exception of the undulations of* their flight. When 
bewildered in foggy weather, they appear sometimes to be in great distress, 
flying about in an irregular manner, and for a considerable time over the 
same quarter, making a great clamor. On these occasions, should they 
approach the earth and alight (which they sometimes do, to rest and re-col- 
lect themselves), the only hospitality they meet with is death and destruc- 
tion from a whole neighborhood, already in arms for their ruin.” 
Famity Mercipz. MERGANSERS. 
The Hooded Merganser is one of the most interesting of these birds. 
This beautiful bird, though found in the whole of our continent, is less com- 
mon than either of the other mergansers on our coast, and in our bays and 
inlets, in autumn, winter, and early spring. In the summer, it resides in 
the interior, where it breeds by the lakes and other bodies of fresh water, 
building its nest in holes in high, dead trees, or on the tops of stubs, thirty 
or forty feet from the ground, exactly like the sheldrake. The eggs are 
from nine, to twelve or fourteen in number, usually about ten. They are 
of a clear-white color, although their surface is, in some specimens, stained 
by the moisture from the feet cf the bird. 
When the nest of this species is approached, the female remains quiet, 
and flies off only when alarmed by blows on the trunk of the tree on which 
her nest is built. She then flies silently, and alights in the lake, near which 
the nest is usually built, and watches the intruder from a safe distance, with- 
out making any outcries or disturbance. If the tree is surrounded by un- 
dererowth so thick that she cannot see the intruder from the water, she flies 
silently over and around him, always at a safe distance. The male never 
shows himself on such occasions; and we think it likely that he separates 
from his mate at the commencement of the period of incubation, and re- 
mains by himself until the young are able to provide for themselves. 
When living in the neighborhood of fresh water, this bird has many of 
the habits of the other mergansers, and then feeds on aquatic insects and their 
larve, and is an expert fisher and diver. 
When the female is suddenly surprised, while with her young in a stream 
or pond, she gives a guttural, chattering ery, when the whole brood dives, 
and swims off under water to the shore, where they conceal themselves in 
the aquatic herbage. This species, in passing with its young from one body 
of water to another, often, while flying, carries them singly in its mouth ; and 
we have been told that, even after it has been shot, and has fallen to the 
ground, it not unfrequently holds the chick. The female of the summer 
duck often encroaches on the nest of this Merganser. 
