HOODED MERGANSER. 59 



whitish intermixed ; wings and back marked like those of the male ; but 

 of a deep brownish ash in those parts which in him are black ; legs and 

 feet pale blue. The young birds, as in the other three species, strongly 

 resemble the female during the first and part of the second year. As these 

 changes of color, from the garb of the female to that of the male, take 

 place in the remote regions of the north, we have not the opportunity 

 of detecting them in their gradual progress to full plumage. Hence, 

 as both males and females have been found in the same dress, some 

 writers have considered them as a separate species from the Smew, and 

 have given to them the title of the Red-headed Smew. 



In the ponds of New England, and- some of the lakes in the state of 

 New York, where the Smew is frequently observed, these red-headed 

 kind are often found in company, and more numerous than the other, 

 for very obvious reasons, and bear, in the markings, though not in the 

 colors, of their plumage, evident proof of their being the same species, 

 but younger-birds or females. The male, like the Muscovy Drake and 

 many others, when arrived at his full size is nearly one-third heavier 

 than the female, and this disproportion of weight, and difference of color, 

 in the full grown males and females are characteristic of the whole 

 genus. 



Species IV. MEBGUS CUCULLATUS. 



HOODED MERGANSEE. 



[Plate IXIX. Fig. 1.] 



L'Harle hupp4 de Virginie, Briss. vi., p. 258, 8. — PI. Enl. 935 male, 936 female. — 

 L'Harle couronn^. Buff, viit., p, 280. — Round-crested Duck. Bdw. pi. 360. — 

 Catesb. I., pi. 94.— ^rd. Zool. No. 467.— Lath. Syn. JO, p. 426. 



This species on the seacoast is usually called the Hairy head. They 

 are more common, however, along our lakes and fresh-water rivers than 

 near the sea ; tracing up creeks, and visiting mill ponds, diving perpe- 

 tually for their food. In the creeks and rivers of the Southern States 

 they are very frequently seen during the winter. Like the Red- 

 breasted they are migratory, the manners, food, and places of resort of 

 both being very much alike. 



The Hooded Merganser is eighteen inches in length, and two feet in 

 extent ; bill blackish red, narrow, thickly toothed, and furnished with 

 a projecting nail at the extremity ; the head is ornamented with a large 

 circular crest, which the bird has the faculty of raising or depressing 

 at pleasure ; the fore part of this, as far as the eye, is black, thence to 



