458 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



a rock or bank ; but rabbit burrows and crevices in walls are 

 sometimes selected, and it is even placed among heather and 

 furze, at no great distance from the water in our islands, but 

 often some distance from the sea in wooded localities in other 

 countries. The nest is scanty and in many cases is dispensed 

 with altogether, the eggs lying on the ground until sufficient 

 down accumulates to protect them. When a nest is made, it is 

 merely a hollow into which a little dry grass and dried leaves 

 are placed, finished off with a warm lining of down from the 

 body of the female. The eggs are from eight to twelve in 

 number and ohve-gray of various shades in colour, smooth in 

 texture, and with some little gloss. They measure on an average 

 2-6 inches in length by 17 inch in breadth. Down tufts large, 

 pale brownish gray in colour, with obscure pale centres and tips. 

 Incubation, performed entirely by the female, lasts twenty-eight 

 days. Sometimes she sits very closely, but generally slips off 

 at the first sign of danger and goes right away at once. The 

 male is never seen at the nest, but he is generally stationed on 

 the sea close by, and joins his mate when she leaves her eggs to 

 come and feed ; whilst as soon as the young brood are abroad 

 he retires to moult. The young soon take to the sea with their 

 mother, and are remarkably active both in swimming and diving. 

 Only one brood is reared in the year. 



Diagnostic Characters.— (Nuptial plumage), Mergus, With 

 the head (crested) and upper neck black, shot with green and 

 purple, with the lower neck and upper breast buff streaked 

 with black, with black margins to the white feathers on the sides 

 of the breast, and with the flanks strongly vermiculated with 

 grayish black (adult male) ; with the head (crested) and upper 

 neck pale chestnut, and with the wing varying from 8-25 to 9 

 inches in length (adult female). Length, 24 to 26 inches (male); 

 22 to 23 inches (female). 



