448 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family ANATID^. Genus Lophodytbs. 



Subfamily Mehginm. 



HOODED MERGANSER. 



LOPHODYTBS CUCULLATUS— fl/wm^Msj . 



Mergus cucullatus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 207 (1766) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. 

 p. 663 (1885) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iv. p. 609 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs 

 Non-indig, Brit. B. p. 185 (1894) ; Lilford, Col. Kg. Brit. B. pt. xxxi. 1895 ; 

 Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 57, pi. 16 (1896). 



Mergranser cucullatus (Linn.), Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 225 (1852). 



Lophodytes cucullatus (Linn.), Salvador!, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 468 (1895) ; 

 Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 56 (1896). 



Geographical A\str\h\xtmn. —British : The Hooded Merganser is a 

 rare and irregular straggler to the British Islands in winter. Several of the 

 alleged occurrences of this species are unworthy of credence, but the reliable 

 evidence on which its claim to be regarded as " British" is founded may be briefly 

 summarised as follows — England: Norfolk (two examples), winter of 1829, and 

 winter of 1837-38. Wales: Menai Straits (one example), winter of 1830-31. 

 Ireland : Co. Kerry, Dingle Bay (one example), about the year 1840 ; Co. Meath 

 (one example), no data; Co. Cork, Cork Harbour (two examples), December, 

 1878; Co. Kerry (one example), January, 1881; Co. Sligo (one doubtful example, 

 not preserved), winter 1880-81. Foreign: Northern Nearctic region, more 

 southerly in winter. It breeds in Arctic and North Temperate America from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, as far north as the Arctic Circle, and as far south as about 

 lat. 45°. During winter it visits most parts of the United States, extending its 

 winter area to Mexico and the West Indies. It occasionally visits the Bermudas, 

 but is not known to occur in Greenland, Iceland, or any part of Continental Europe. 



Allied forms. — None of sufficient J)ropinquity to call for notice. 



Habits. — The Hooded Merganser does not differ in its habits and economy 

 from its congeners in any known important particular. It is perhaps more of an 

 inland species than the preceding bird, attached to fresh water during summer 

 like the Goosander, but resorting to the coasts in winter, where it prefers a 



