Hooded Merganser in a Chicago Park 
By HERBERT R. MILLS 
ARFIELD PARK, a large natural woodland containing several acres 
G of beautiful lagoons, is situated in Chicago’s thickly settled west side. 
Here, in sight of Madison Street’s continual procession of street cars, 
and within range of the roar from Lake Street’s elevated and surface lines, a 
Hooded Merganser, in adult male plumage, has come and remained for the past 
eighteen months. His first appearance in the park was during the spring migra- 
tion of 1908, and since then my frequent visits to the park have never failed to 
find him contentedly feeding along the edge of some lagoon, in company with 
the tame Ducks and Swan that are kept there. 
HOODED MERGANSER IN A CHICAGO PARK LAKE 
Photographed by Herbert R. Mills 
He is apparently uninjured. I have never seen him fly, but he sometimes 
leaves the water and walks up on the shore to sit among the bushes on the bank. 
In the water he far surpasses the tame birds in speed and power. He seems to have 
lost all fear of human beings, for he will dash up to the very water’s edge to 
snatch the cracker or piece of bread offered to him. When food is thrown out 
on the lagoon, he will shoot through the water like a meteor, and seize the morsel 
from under the very bill of the tame Duck, whose alertness and power of instan- 
taneous reaction have long been lost through years of domestication. 
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