68 BIRDS 



RED-BREASTED MERGANSER 



The Red-breasted Merganser ranges throughout the 

 northern part of North America, breeding from northern 

 Illinois and New Brunswick to the Arctic regions, winter- 

 ing from southern United States to Cuba. 



The red-breasted merganser inhabits Europe, Asia, and 

 America, breeding on the British Isles, Iceland, Green- 

 land, Labrador, Alaska, and the Magdalen Islands in the 

 North Atlantic. During the fall, winter, and spring 

 months they frequent the waters of northern Illinois and 

 Indiana; in March and April they resort to the lagoons 

 of Lincoln Park, Chicago, and feast upon fish, exhibiting 

 at times but little fear of man. The bold, venturesome 

 gulls lurk about the lagoons, and when a merganser arises 

 with his prize, a gull swoops down and in the twinkling 

 of an eye robs the duck of his morsel. The three mergan- 

 sers, the red-breasted, American, and hooded, generally 

 known as fish ducks, shelldrakes, or sawbills, frequent 

 swift running streams, ponds, and lakes, where they feed 

 almost exclusively upon fish, which they pursue and cap- 

 ture under water. Their deeply barbed bills are especially 

 adapted for catching and holding fish, which the birds 

 bring to the surface before swallowing. 



The legs of all fish ducks are placed far back on the 

 body, enabling their owners to outswim the other ducks. 

 They frequently rest upon logs and stumps of trees found 

 in or near the water. The hooded mergansers are the 

 only sawbills whose flesh is at all palatable, and they are 



