192 The Water-fowl Family 



dark shaft streaks ; primaries, black ; speculum, white ; flanks, 

 ash ; lower parts, white, with a tinge of buff, fading in dried 

 skins ; tail, gray ; bill, reddish brown ; culmen, blackish ; feet, 

 reddish orange ; webs, dusky ; iris, brown. 



Measurements — Length, 22 inches; wing, 9.60 inches; tarsus, 1.80 

 inches; culmen, 1.90 inches. 



Young male — With general characteristics of female, but larger in 

 measurement. 



Downy young — Upper parts, brown, marked with four white spots; 

 upper half of head and neck, rusty ; rest of head, neck, and under 

 parts, white. 



Eggs — Seven to ten in number, ivory-white, with a tinge of buff, 

 and measure 2.63 by 1.75 inches. 



Habitat — Breeds from Newfoundland, Sable Island (?), Maine, Ver- 

 mont, New York, formerly Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, 

 Nebraska, and Washington, and south in the mountains to Penn- 

 sylvania, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, north to Labra- 

 dor, Great Slave Lake, probably Fort Anderson, Fort Yukon, 

 and the Queen Charlotte Islands. Winters from New Bruns- 

 wick, Vermont rarely, Ontario, Wisconsin, Kansas, Colorado, 

 Idaho, British Columbia, and the Aleutian and Pribilof islands, 

 south to Florida, Louisiana, Texas, northern Mexico, and Cali- 

 fornia. Occurs in Bermuda. 



Fond of the sport and a clever fisherman, but 

 no respecter of a six-inch law, the American mer- 

 ganser knows every trout stream and lake from 

 northern New England to as far north as trout 

 streams flow. In July we see the female with her 

 little brood on the secluded lakes and rivers. 

 They were bred in the hole of some tree not far 

 from water, and since the time the old duck car- 

 ried them to the ground in her bill they have 

 been learning merganser manners, and now are 

 well skilled in diving, hiding, and scooting along 



