DUCKS 43 



1915, one at Orange Beach, December 6, 1915, and one at 

 Bayou Labatre, January 19, 1916. Peters saw a male of this 

 species at Grants Island, June 5, 1914. Mrs. B. R. Samuel, 

 of Guntersville, has a specimen collected on the Tennessee 

 River near that place. 



General habits. — This merganser is rather partial to the 

 sea coast. In the South it feeds chiefly in shallow bayous or 

 ponds, and is not particularly shy, often coming to decoys or 

 flying past a boat within gunshot. The flight is rapid and 

 usually in line, one bird behind another. The birds are expert 

 divers and fishermen. 



Food habits. — The food of this species, as indicated by 5 

 stomachs from Alabama, consists principally of small fishes; 

 one stomach contained also remains of about 13 shrimp. 



HOODED MERGANSER; SAWBILL; BEC-SCIE: 

 Lophodytes cucullatus (Linnaeus). 



State records. — The hooded merganser occurs over the 

 greater part of Alabama, both in summer and winter, and 

 breeds locally in small numbers. In the interior it is com- 

 monly known as "saw-bill," but on the coast is more frequent- 

 ly called by its French name, "bec-scie." Golsan and Holt 

 record it as a permanent resident near Autaugaville, and state 

 that broods of young have been seen on several occasions.* 

 Avery records it as an uncommon winter resident at Greens- 

 boro, and McCormack has observed it at Leighton in Febru- 

 ary, March, April, and July. During the first week in April, 

 1912, at Leighton, I found a number of these mergansers liv- 

 ing in a slough in the woods where, possibly, they intended 

 to breed. Both males and females were taken, but the birds 

 were not paired. At Muscle Shoals, November 3, 1915, I ob- 

 served a female in Town Creek, and on December 18, saw a 

 pair in the river near the same point. The species is found 

 also at Montgomery and at Guntersville, as evidenced by 

 mounted specimens in the possession of the Country Club of 

 Montgomery and in the collection of Mrs. B. R. Samuel, of 

 Guntersville. 



•Golsan and Holt, The Auk. vol. 31, p. 216, 1914. 



