248 HOODED MERGANSER. 



are not yellow, as is alleged by some writers, but very dark brown. 

 Even when feathered they retain the same colour until the beginning of 

 August, when they gradually change it for the dress of the adult female. 



Like all the rest of the tribe, which, when far north, for the want of 

 hollow trees, breed on the moss or ground, the Hooded Mergansers that 

 remain with us nestle in the same kind of holes or hollows as the Wood 

 Ducks ; at least I have found their nests in such situations seven or eight 

 times, although I never saw one of them alight on the branch of a tree, 

 as the birds just mentioned are wont to do. They dive as it were directly 

 into their wooden burrows, where on a few dried weeds and feathers of 

 different kinds, with a small quantity of down from the breast of the fe- 

 male, the eggs are deposited. They are from five to eight, measure one 

 inch and three-fourths by one and three-eighths, and in other respects 

 perfectly resemble those of the Red-breasted Merganser. 



The young, like those of the Wood Duck, are conveyed to the water 

 by their mother, who carries them gently in her bill ; for the male takes 

 no part in providing for his offspring, but abandons his mate as soon as 

 incubation has commenced. The affectionate mother leads her young 

 among the tall rank grasses which fill the shallow pools or the borders of 

 creeks, and teaches them to procure snails, tadpoles, and insects. The eggs 

 are laid in May, and the young are out some time in June. On two oc- 

 casions the parents would not abandon the young, although I expected 

 that the noises which I made would have induced them to do so : they 

 both followed their offspring into the net which I had set for them. The 

 young all died in two days, when I restored the old birds to liberty. 



The Hooded Merganser, as well as all the other species with which I 

 am acquainted, moves with ease on the ground, nay even runs with speed. 

 Those which leave the United States, take their departure from the first 

 of March to the middle of May ; and I am induced to believe that pro- 

 bably one-third of them tarry for the purpose of breeding on the margins 

 of several of our great lakes. When migrating, they fly at a great height, 

 in small loose flocks, without any regard to order. Their notes consist 

 of a kind of rough grunt, variously modulated, but by no means musical, 

 and resembling the syllables croo, croo, crook. The female repeats it six 

 or seven times in succession, when she sees her young in danger. The 

 same noise is made by the male, either when courting on the water, or as 

 he passes on wing near the hole where the female is laying one of her 

 eggs. 



