ANATIDZ. 477 
THE HOODED MERGANSER. 
MERGUS cUCULLATUS, Linnzus. 
There are several unauthenticated statements respecting the 
occurrence of this North American species in British waters, but 
the records upon which reliance can be placed are very few in 
number. Eyton, in his ‘ History of the Rarer British Birds’ (p. 75), 
has described and figured a Hooded Merganser which he obtained 
in the Menai Straits, North Wales, in the winter of 1830-31. In 
Treland, Mr. Ussher has not been able to find, among the birds at 
Chute Hall, Tralee, the specimen said to have been killed in Dingle 
Bay, co. Kerry, about 1840; while he has been equally unsuccessful 
with regard to an immature bird stated by Watters to have been 
shot inco. Meath. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey, however, has had the good 
fortune to secure no fewer than three (‘ Fowler in Ireland,’ p. 121). 
Of the latter, a pair haunted a creek in Cork Harbour during the 
severe frost of December 1878, in company with some Red-breasted 
Mergansers ; but though he had ample opportunities of observing 
through a glass their motions when feeding and flying, they were 
too wild to allow of his approach within range, until one day when 
they were deserted by their companions. He killed the third bird 
during yet more severe weather in January 1881, on the north coast 
of Kerry; while he heard of a solitary individual being shot near 
Sligo the same winter, but believes that it was not preserved. From 
what he saw of those he procured, they appeared to fly faster and 
