BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 61 



Nest. — Of leaves, grasses and moss, lined with down, in a hole in a tree 

 or cliff. 



Eggs. — Six to ten, creamy buff, 2.65 by 1.75 (Chapman). 



Season. — October to May; rare in summer. 



Range. — ■ North America. Breeds from southern Alaska, southern Yukon, 

 Great Slave Lake, central Keewatin, southern Ungava and Newfound- 

 land south to central Oregon, southern South Dakota, southern Minne- 

 sota, central Michigan, Ohio (formerly), northern New York, Vermont, 

 New Hampshire and Maine; and in mountains, south to northern 

 California, central Arizona, northern New Mexico and Pennsylvania 

 (formerly); winters from Aleutian Islands, British Columbia, Idaho, 

 northern Colorado, southern Wisconsin, southern Ontario, northern 

 New England and New Brunswick south to northern Lower California, 

 northern Mexico (Chihuahua), Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Bermuda. 



History. 

 The American Merganser is the largest of the sawbill 

 Ducks or Mergansers. The adult male is a very handsome 

 bird with its glossy dark green head and salmon-colored 

 breast. It is quite distinctively a fresh-water bird, and 

 though often met with on the bays and estuaries of the 

 sea, it is less often seen on the sea itself at any great distance 

 from land. It breeds mainly by the ponds and rivers of the 

 interior, and throughout the wooded part of its range in the 

 northern United States and southern Canadian territory; 

 nests mainly in hollow trees. It apparently prefers fresh 

 water even in winter, and I have seen it feeding in the 

 unfrozen waters of the rapids of rivers in Massachusetts and 

 New Hampshire during the coldest months of the year. 

 Comparatively few are seen now in most of our waters where 

 shooting is allowed, but a few sometimes gather in protected 

 ponds or reservoirs. There is quite a general belief in the 

 interior that this species has decreased much in recent years. 

 Mr. Robert O. Morris (1901) records it as the most numerous 

 DuckintheConnecticutRiver from November to May. Thirty- 

 nine of my correspondents in 1908, whose average experience 

 in the field represents nearly thirty years, report it as decreas- 

 ing, and ten note an increase. These reports cover nearly the 

 entire State, as the species is noted in every county. Reports 

 from the coastal States and provinces south to New Jersey 



