MERGANSERS 



(131) Lophodytes cucullatus 



(Linn.) {(Jr., a crctit. 



ilivcr; L:Lt., .wear- 



ing a hood). 



HOODED M E R G A N S E R ; 

 HAIRY HEAD; SUMMER SHEL- 

 DRAKE, jid. (f — Beautifully plum- 

 aged and crested as shown. Bill iDlack. 

 Iris yellow. Ad. 9 — Plumage as shown 

 by bird in the distance. Crest brown, 

 with no white patch; neck and back 

 grayish; white speculum and under 

 parts. L., 18.00; W., 7.50; T., 4.00; 

 Tar., 1.20; B., 1.50. Nest — In cav- 

 ities of trees near the water's edge; 

 eight to eighteen pearl-gray eggs, 

 2.15 X 1.70. 



Range — Breeds in the U. S. and 

 southern Canada. Winters in south- 

 ern U. S. 



(131. i) SMEW (Mergellus albel- 

 lus) (Linn.). An European species; 

 accidental in northern N. A. 



opened and closed at will. This species does not live ex- 

 clusively upon a fish diet; in fact, they often feed upon tender 

 roots of aquatic plants and moUusks to such an extent that 

 they become quite plump and their flesh is then good. 



In summer, Hooded Mergansers seek lakes, ponds or 

 swamps about which are large decayed trees or trunks, 

 for they commonly nest in cavities from six to twenty feet 

 above ground. The bottom of the hollows are lined with 

 grass, on which ten or a dozen, or sometimes as many as 

 eighteen, pearly white eggs are laid. The little mergansers 

 flutter down or are carried to the ground by their mother 

 and immediately led to the water. Until able to fly, they 

 are ever under the watchful eye of their parents, whose 

 vigilance alone saves many of them from untimely ends in 

 the jaws of pickerels, turtles or mink. 



MALLARDS, or "Green-heads" and "Wild Ducks" as 

 they are often called, are quite abundantly distributed over 

 the Northern Hemisphere. Because of their abundance, 



77 



