RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 95 



The Red-breasted Merganser is a sliy bird. The males especially 

 are extremely suspicious and vigilant, after they have left the females 

 incubating, and when they congregate in flocks of from five to twenty 

 on some sequestered clear stream, to renew their plumage. The moult 

 is completed in the end of July or beginning of August, and at that 

 season I had the greatest difiiculty in procuring them, for, being then 

 almost unable to rise from the water, they seemed to dive with an alert- 

 ness proportionally greater. 



The flesh of this bird is tough, and has a fishy taste. I have re- 

 presented a male and a female, along with a new species of Sarracenia, 

 which is found abundantly from Pensacola to Georgia, as well as in 

 some parts of South Carolina. 



Mehgus Serrator, iiMw. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 208. — Lath. Ind. Ornitli. vol. ii p. 829. 



— Gh. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 397. 

 Red-breasted Merganser, Mergus Serrator, Wils. Amer. Ornith. voL viii. 



p. 91, pi. 69, fig. 2., male. 

 Mergus Serrator, Eed-breasted Mergakser, Eiehards. and Swains. Fauna 



Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p. 462. 

 Red-breasted Merganser, IVuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 463. 



Adult Male. Plate CCCCI. Fig. 1. 



Bill about the length of the head, straight, strong, tapering, higher 

 than broad at the base, nearly cylindrical toward the end. Upper 

 mandible with the dorsal outline sloping gently to the middle, then 

 straight, along the unguis suddenly decurved ; the ridge flattened at 

 the base, and gradually becoming convex ; the sides sloping rapidly at 

 the base, convex toward the end, the edges serrated beneath ; the un- 

 guis oblong, much curved, abruptly rounded at the end. Nasal groove 

 elongated ; nostrils subbasal, linear, direct, pervious. Lower mandible 

 with the angle very narrow, and extended to the unguis, which is obo- 

 vate ; the sides nearly erect in their outer half, with a long narrow 

 groove, the edges serrate within. 



Head rather large, compressed, oblong. Neck rather long and some- 

 what slender. Body full, depressed. Feet placed far behind, short, 

 stout ; tibia bare for about a quarter of an inch ; tarsus very short, com- 

 pressed, anteriorly covered with small scutella, and another row on the 

 lower half externally, the sides reticulated, the hind part thin edged. 

 Hind toe very small, with an inferior free membrane ; anterior toes 



