RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 589 
down of the breast. The young are of a dirty brown, like young Gos- 
lings. In October they all depart southward to the lakes, where they 
may have open water. 
This species is twenty-two inches in length, and thirty-two in 
extent; the bill is two inches and three quarters in length, of the color 
of bright sealing-wax, ridged above with dusky ; the nail at the tip, 
large, blackish, and overhanging ; both mandibles are thickly serrated ; 
irides, red; head, furnished with along, hairy crest, which is often pen- 
dent, but occasionally erected, as represented in the plate ; this, and 
part of the neck, is black, glossed with green; the neck under this, fo. 
two or three inches, is pure white, ending in a broad space of reddish 
ochre spotted with black, which spreads over the lower part of the 
neck and sides of the breast; shoulders, back, and tertials, deep velvety 
black, the first marked with a number of singular roundish spots of 
white; scapulars, white; wing-coverts mostly white, crossed by two 
narrow bands of black; primaries, black; secondaries, white; several 
of the latter edged with black; lower part of the back, the rump, and 
tail-coverts, gray, speckled with black; sides, under the wings, ele- 
gantly crossed with numerous waving lines of black; belly and vent, 
white ; legs and feet, red; the tail, dusky ash; the black of the back 
passes up the hind neck in a narrow band to the head. 
The female is twenty-one inches in length, and thirty in extent; 
the crested head and part of the neck are of a dull sorel color; 
irides, yellow; legs and bill, red, upper parts, dusky slate ; wings, black ; 
greater coverts, largely tipped with white; secondaries, nearly all 
white; sides of the breast, slightly dusky; whole lower parts, pure 
white; the tail is of a lighter slate than the back. The crest is much 
shorter than in the male, and sometimes there is a slight tinge of fer- 
ruginous on the breast. 
The windpipe of the male of this species is very curious, and differs 
something from that of the Goosander. About two inches from the 
mouth, it swells out to four times its common diameter, continuing of 
that size for about an inch anda half. This swelling is capable of 
being shortened or extended; it then continues of its first diameter 
for two inches or more, when it becomes flattish, and almost trans- 
parent for other two inches; it then swells into a bony labyrinth of 
more than two inches in length by one and a half in width, over the 
hollow sides of which is spread a yellowish skin-like parchment. The 
left side of this, fronting the back of the bird, isa hard bone. The 
divarications come out very regularly from this at the lower end, and 
enter the lungs. 
The intention of Nature in this extraordinary structure is probably 
to enable the bird to take down a supply of air to support respiration 
while diving; yet why should the female, who takes the same sub- 
marine excursions as the male, be entirely destitute of this apparatus? 
