162 AN ATI D.*:. 



THE EED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 



Scale Duck (north of Ireland) . 



Mergus serrator, Linn. 



Is indigenous in Ireland ; 



But, as in the instance of various other species which breed here, 

 the numbers are greatly increased in winter by migration from the 

 north. Sir William Jardine observes, that it is a winter visitant 

 to the south of Scotland, and is not nearly so common on fresh- 

 water at that season as the goosander.'* Mr. Selby remarks that, 

 " upon the Northumbrian and other coasts of the north of Eng- 

 land, this species is a regular winter visitant^' (p. 379) ; and 

 Montagu, in the supplement to his work, states that " this may 

 be considered a rare species in the south of England." The red- 

 breasted merganser thus appears to be, in Great Britain, the re- 

 verse of the smew ; — more common towards the north, and rare 

 towards the south of the island. According to the information 

 supplied by my correspondents in the south of Ireland, the red- 

 breasted merganser is also more common in the north than there. 

 The M. serrator breeds on some of the islands in Strangford 

 Lough. An old sporting friend, many years ago, obtained from 

 a nest there, eleven eggs, and placed them under a muscovy duck, 

 by which, in from six to eight days, they were all " brought out," 

 having, of course, been partially incubated by their proper owner 

 previous to their abstraction. The young all lived until they were 

 able to fly away, when they made their escape, my friend not 

 wisliing to retain them after he saw that they were scale-ducks 

 instead of shell-ducks, whose eggs he thought had been procured. 

 These young birds are said to have cleared all the waters, 

 within a mile of their birth-place, of fishes and frogs. A very 

 graphic account is given of their activity in scudding along the 

 surface of the water, as if it were land, when they saw a fly alight, 



* -Bnt. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 181. 



