RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 93 



but when the cold increases so as to close the waters it removes south- 

 ward until it finds a suitable place. 



This species is by choice mostly dependent on fresh water for its 

 sustenance ; but when the winters are very severe it throws itself into 

 the salt lagoons or bays, and there seeks for prey to which it is not 

 well accustomed, and which is rather more difficult to be overtaken, 

 than that which is confined in the narrow mountain-streams for which 

 it shews a natural predilection greater than even that of the Goosander, 

 Mergus Merganser. It breeds in many parts of our Middle and Eastern 

 States, and on two occasions I have found the female in charge of her 

 brood in the lower parts of Kentucky. In the States of New York, 

 Massachusetts and Maine it is by no means a rare occurrence to meet 

 with the nest of this bird along the borders of small secluded lakes. 

 It is as common at this season in the British provinces of New Bruns- 

 wick and Nova Scotia, and it is still more plentiful on the islands of 

 the Gulf of St Lawrence, as well as on the streams of Newfoundland 

 and Labrador. 



The Red-breasted Merganser is best known throughout the United 

 States by the name of " SheU-drake.'" It is, like all the species of its 

 tribe, a most expert diver, and on being fired at with a flint-locked gun 

 generally escapes by disappearing before the shot reaches the place 

 where it has been. Its flight is similar to that of the Goosander, being 

 strong, rapid, and remarkably well sustained when it is travelling to 

 a considerable distance. Gluttonous in the extreme, it frequently 

 gorges itself so as to be unable to rise. I have several times seen one 

 of them obliged to eject a great part of the contents of its stomach and 

 gullet before it could fly ofi^, and some which I have kept a day or two 

 in confinement have died in consequence of swallowing too many fishes. 



The " Shell Drake," according to the latitude of the place which it 

 has selected, and the degree of forwardness of the season, begins to 

 form its nest from the first of March imtil the middle of May. Some 

 nests which I examined in Labrador had not their full complement of 

 eggs until about the 20th of June. In that country, as well as in se- 

 veral parts of the United States, where I have foimd the nests, they 

 were placed within a very short distance of the margins of fresh-water 

 ponds, among rank grasses and sedges, or beneath the low bushes. The 

 nest bears a great resemblance to that of the Eider Duck, but is a good 



