94 RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 



deal smaller, and better fashioned. It is made of dry weeds and mosses 

 of various kinds, and is warmly lined with down from the breast of the 

 female bird, for the male leaves her as soon as she has completed the 

 laying of the eggs, the number of which I have never found to exceed 

 ten, they being more frequently six or eight. It is a very remarkable 

 fact that the eggs in this family of birds are usually even in number, 

 whereas in most land birds they are odd. The eggs of the Red-breasted 

 Merganser measure two and a half inches in length, an inch and five- 

 eighths in breadth, resemble in form those of the domestic fowl, and 

 are of a uniform plain dull yellowish cream-colour. 



When one approaches the nest, the female usually slides or runs oflp 

 a few paces, and then takes to wing. I have never observed the paths 

 to the nests which some authors have described, and cannot well ima- 

 gine why there should be any such, as this bird is capable of taking 

 flight as readily as any with which I am acquainted. It uses the great- 

 est precaution in retiring to the nest ; and on more occasions than one 

 I have remained well concealed at a short distance for upwards of an 

 hour before the bird came back to her eggs. Perhaps this may tend to 

 shew that there is less necessity for keeping the eggs warm, even when 

 they are about to be hatched, in this than in other species, which are 

 known to resume incubation as soon as possible. 



The young betake themselves to the water a few hours after birth, 

 and are from the first so expert at diving as to be procurable only with 

 great difficulty. Indeed, when they are about a fortnight old, they 

 move with astonishing rapidity, whether on the surface, where they 

 run with almost the speed of a greyhound, or in the water itself, in 

 which they shew themselves as much at home as if they were seals or 

 otters. The only means of catching them that I have found success- 

 ful is to throw stones at them, whenever they rise, until becoming 

 fatigued, they make for the shore, where they stretch themselves out 

 and remain quite still, so that you may go up to them and take them 

 with the hand. 



At the approach of autumn they resemble the old females ; but the 

 sexes can easily be distinguished by examining the unguis or extremity 

 of the upper mandible, which will be found to be white or whitish in 

 the males, and red or reddish in the females. The young males begin 

 to assume the spring di-ess in the beginning of February, but they do 

 not acquire their full size and beauty until the second year. 



