126 Bird - Lore 



dress-parade, so ordered as to give all the rival drakes an equal opportunity 

 of displaying their respective charms of plumage and deportment to the best 

 'advantage, in direct yet friendly competition with one another. Their exo- 

 lutions appeared to be regulated largely by estabHshed system or convention, 

 and some of them were strikingly beautiful. Thus eight or nine drakes, strung 

 out in single file, but so close together that the bill of each almost touched 

 the tail of the one next in front, would swim past a female at top speed, and 

 then turn about instantly, each bird on its own axis, as if at a given signal, 

 before starting back in reversed order — that is, with the bird which had been 

 last now leading and the one that had been first bringing up the rear. I saw 

 this done a dozen times or more, the distance traversed in a straight line on 

 these occasions varying from ten to fifty yards. When a number of drakes 

 started after a female that was swimming away from them, they commonly 

 overhauled and passed her quickly in the manner just described, but sometimes 

 the chase would continue for one or two hundred yards. When overtaken, 

 she usually stopped, and seemed to watch the behavior of her numerous 

 admirers with some interest. While parading before her, one or another of 

 them would occasionally thrust his head and neck straight upward to their 

 full length. This position was never maintained for more than a fraction of 

 a second, thereby differing from the corresponding and otherwise similar one 

 often assumed by the male Whistler. The distance was too great for me to 

 make out whether or not the bill was opened. I noticed no other unusual 

 movements of the head and neck, wliich, indeed, seemed to be carried for 

 the most part as on ordinary occasions, although perhaps somewhat higher 

 and more erect. But I did see, very many times, jets of water or spray fly into 

 the air at the rear of the drakes which, at the time, were "displaying" in the 

 presence of one or more females. These jets were similar in most respects to 

 those which are kicked up by male Whistlers on like occasions, but they rose 

 to a greater height and were apparently somewhat broader. That they form 

 a more or less essential part of the ceremonials of courtship seems evident. 

 Nor do I doubt that the Merganser, like the Whistler, throws them up by a 

 vigorous kick of one or both of its feet although I did not actually see the feet 

 exposed. 



Later in the morning the ISIergansers swam in nearer to the shore, where 

 we watched them for some time at distances within two hundred yards. They 

 had now ceased parading and were scattered about singly, in pairs, and in 

 small groups, many of them engaged in fishing. One pair, not over one hun- 

 dred and fifty yards away, acted for a time in a singular manner. At first 

 I noticed only the drake, a fine, big fellow with snowy white sides and bottle- 

 green head, who was swimming slowly in circles about an inconspicuous 

 object that looked very like a piece of bark or driftwood. On scrutinizing it 

 closely, however, I soon made out that it was a female Merganser, floating 

 perfectly motionless, and so deep in the water that only the line of her back 



