AMERICAN MERGANSER 33 



toward the shore and there disappeared. Though I saw 

 no bird there, I suspect that the ripple was made by it. 

 Two sheldrakes flew away from this one when first ob- 

 served. Why did this remain? Was it wounded? Or 

 can those which dart so swiftly across the river and 

 dive be another species and not the young of the sea- 

 son or females of the common one ? Is it not, after all, 

 the red-breasted merganser, and did I not see them in 

 Maine? 1 



I see half a dozen sheldrakes very busily fishing 

 around the base of Lupine Hill or Promontory. There 

 are two full-plumaged males and the rest females, or 

 perhaps some of them young males. They are coasting 

 along swiftly with their bodies sunk low and their heads 

 half under, looking for their prey, one behind another, 

 frequently turning and passing over the same ground 

 again. Their crests are very conspicuous, thus : 

 When one sees a fish he at first swims rapidly 

 after it, and then, if necessary, flies close over the water 

 after it, and this excites all the rest to follow, swimming 

 or flying, and if one seizes the fish, which I suspect is 

 commonly a pickerel, they all pursue the lucky fisher, 

 and he makes the water fly far in his efforts to get away 

 and gulp down his fish. I can see the fish in his bill 

 all the while, and he must swallow it very skillfully 

 and quickly, if at all. I was first attracted to them by 

 seeing these great birds rushing, shooting, thus swiftly 

 through the air and water and throwing the water high 

 about them. Sometimes they dive and swim quietly 



1 [If the males as well as the females had the crests mentioned later 

 the birds were, of course, red-breasted mergansers.] 



