Mergansers 



Red-breasted Merganser 



(Merganser Serrator) 



C«//tf</a/w.-— SHELLDRAKE; SAWBILL; WHISTLER; PIED 

 SHELLDRAKE; GARBILL 



Length — 22 to 24 inches. 



Male — Head and throat greenish black; more greenish above, and 

 with long, pointed crest over top of head and nape; white 

 collar around neck; sides of lower neck and the upper breast 

 cinnamon red, with black streaks; lower breast, underneath, 

 and the greater part of wings white; other feathers black. 

 Back black ; lower back and sides finely barred with black and 

 white; a white patch of feathers, with black border, in front 

 of wings, and two black bars across them. Bill long, saw- 

 toothed, red, curved at end, and with nostrils near the base; 

 eyes red ; legs and toes reddish orange. 



Female and Young — Similar to the American merganser. Head, 

 neck, and crest dull, rusty brown; dark ashy on back and tail; 

 throat and under parts white, shaded with gray along sides; 

 white of wing restricted to a patch (mirror or speculum) ; no 

 peculiar feathers in front of wing. 



Range — United States generally; nests from Illinois and Maine 

 northward to Arctic regions ; winters south of its nesting 

 limits to Cuba. 



Season — Winter resident and visitor ; October to April. 



Swift currents of water, deep pools where the fish hide, 

 and foaming cataracts where they leap, invite the red-breasted 

 merganser, as they do its larger American relative; for both birds 

 have insatiable appetites, happily united with marvelous swim- 

 ming and diving powers that must be constantly exercised in 

 pursuit of their finny prey. Fish they must and will have, in 

 addition to frogs, little lizards, mollusks, and small shell fish ; and 

 for such a diet this fishing duck forsakes its northern nesting 

 grounds in winter, when ice locks its larder, to hunt in the open 

 waters, salt or fresh, of the United States. Cold has no terror 

 for these hardy creatures ; they swim as nimbly in the icy water 

 of the St. Lawrence as in the rivers of Cuba, and disappear 

 under an ice cake with no less readiness than they do under lily- 

 pads. Food is their chief desire; and rather than let a six-inch 

 fish go, any merganser would choke in its efforts to bolt it. 



89 



