I02 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



i8. Lophodytes cucuUatus (Linn.). 

 Hooded Merganser. 



Transient visitor in autumn, formerly common. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



August II, 1868, one im. female taken, Fresli Pond Swamps, W. Brewster. 



November 10 — 30. 

 December 22, 1898, one seen. Fresh Pond, O. A. Lothrop. 



The late Dr. Samuel Cabot told me, shortly before his death, that Hooded 

 Mergansers occurred numerously in the Fresh Pond Swamps when he was at 

 Harvard College (183 2- 183 6). He used to find them oftenest in the secluded 

 pools and reaches along Alewife Brook, where he killed numbers of young birds 

 in autumn and, on one occasion, a fine drake in full plumage, with its mate, in 

 spring. He did not think, however, that they bred in or near Cambridge at that 

 time. 



From 1867 to 1875, and probably for several years later, the Hooded Mer- 

 ganser visited Fresh, Glacialis, Little, Spy, and Mystic Ponds regularly each 

 autumn, and late in November was often more numerously represented than any 

 other kind of Duck. In Fresh Pond, during this period, I occasionally saw 

 flocks containing upwards of thirty or forty members each, although ordinarily 

 not more than ten or fifteen birds would be found together. They frequented 

 sheltered coves and were incessantly diving for food in the shallow water near 

 shore, or close to the edges of the ice when the ponds were partly frozen over. 

 They were so very alert and wary that it was most difficult to approach them, 

 and but few were killed by the gunners. I do not remember ever seeing a fully 

 adult male among theni, nor have I ever met with the species here in spring. 

 On August II, 1868, however, I shot a female in Little River a few hundred 

 yards below Little Pond. This specimen was a young bird — so very young, in 

 fact, that I have sometimes thought that it may have been hatched not far from 

 the spot where it was killed, although it was fully feathered and quite able to 

 fly well. It remained in my collection for a number of years, but finally was 

 destroyed by moths. 



During the past twenty years or more the Hooded Merganser has been 

 steadily decreasing in numbers throughout New England, and it is fast becoming 

 a positively rare visitor to eastern Massachusetts. Mr. Walter Faxon tells me 



