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MERGUS CUCULLATUS. 



Mer. Mas. — Capite atro cristato: crista alba, et macula triangulari notata. 

 Mer. Fern. — Brunnea, capite cristato ; gutture albo. 



HOODED MERGANSER. 



Male mer. with the head crested black ; crest with a large triangular patch of white. 

 Fern, brown merganser, with the head crested ; the throat white. 



IN. IN. 



Length 19 Inner toe 1^ 



Bill If Middle toe 2 



Tarsi 1£ 



Male : head and neck glossy black, with purple and green inflections, the former largely 

 crested with long silky feathers ; crest marked with a fan-shaped patch of white, the small end 

 placed towards the eye, a little behind it, and extending backwards nearly to the edge of the hood ; 

 breast and under surface white, the former with two bands of velvet black, tapering to a point in 

 front of the wings ; quills and tertiaries deep brown, the latter with white shafts and dark edges ; 

 tail dark In-own ; back black ; flanks dark chesnut, with narrow transverse undulated bars of black 

 or brown ; irides yellow ; bill red. 



Fem. : with the crest smaller than in the. male, and the feathers not so numerous ; neck, back. 

 head, crest, and wings umber brown, varying in intensity ; throat white ; lower part of the neck 

 light umber brown ; belly white ; feet and legs in both sexes red. 



Young similar to the female in colouring, but the males may be distinguished by the crest 

 being larger. 



Mergus cucullatus Linn. Syst. 1. 207. 



Ghtnel. Syst. 1. 544. 



Lath. Lid. Orn. 2. 830. 



Eyton, Hist. B. Brit. Birds, 75. 



And. Am. Orn. 3. 246. 



Mergus fuscus Lath. Lid. Orn. 2. 802. 



Hooded merganser Perm. Arct. Zool. 2. 407. 



Lath, Gen. Syn. 6. 420. pi. ci. 



Bound-crested Luck Catesb. Carol. 1 . pi. 9 1 . 



Brown merganser Bom. Arct. Zool. 2d Sup. 7 I 



/.'■ Harle couronne B ".(?'• Ois. 8. 280. 



I',;//. En. Method. Orn. 1. 103. 

 Le Harle a queue fourchue Veill. En. Method. Orn. 1. 105. 



Rare in Europe; one or two specimens have, however, been killed in the British isles. 

 Nmth America is its true habitat, over the whole of which it appears during winter to be 

 found; as spring approaches, the greater portion of them retire to the ninth, though some remain 

 and breed in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and the intermediate district. It builds in holes of trees 

 and lo.ks where it can find them ; but in districts devoid of such localities builds on the ground on 

 the borders of lakes, laying from six to ten white eg| 



7. 



