66 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



In winter, most of the birds of this species which are seen 

 in Massachusetts appear to be full plumaged males, while in 

 summer the few which remain with us appear to be females. 

 Some of them, however, may be males in the " eclipse " 

 plumage. I have noticed that practically all the birds seen 

 in winter in Florida are females or young. This, together 

 with the fact that most of those seen in Massachusetts in 

 winter are males, seems to indicate that the hardy males do 

 not go so far south in winter as do the females and young. 



The Red-breasted Mergansers feed largely on fish, diving 

 -and charging through the schools of small fish, which they 

 seize and hold fast with their saw-toothed bills. Thoreau 

 notes that he saw Sheldrakes (presumably of this species) 

 chasing fish by both swimming and flying along the surface. 

 A few shell-fish are eaten at times. 



Since the above was written evidence has been secured 

 that corroborates the statements of gunners regarding the re- 

 cent nesting of this species in Massachusetts. Mr. Jonathan 

 H. Jones of Waquoit states that some years since some gun- 

 ners there liberated two crippled birds in a pond near the 

 village, and that a brood of young was raised there that year. 

 He states that for several years he has seen broods of young 

 birds along the south shore of Cape Cod, but is inclined to 

 the belief that their parents were cripples which were left over 

 from the spring shooting. This year (1911) I saw a female 

 on the Agawam River at Wareham in June, and the same, or 

 another, several times in July and August within half a mile 

 of the spot where she was first seen. No young were seen, 

 but a collector shot the bird on the last day of August, and 

 he informed me that the condition of the ovaries showed that 

 the bird had been breeding. I examined the specimen later, 

 and it was undoubtedly a breeding bird. It could fly well, 

 was not crippled in any way, and a careful examination re- 

 vealed no old shot marks. 



