296 



Young in down (Calais, Maine) . Upper parts deep hair-brown, rather lighter on the head ; on each side of 

 the back a small whitish spot, and a similar large one on each side of the rump; middle of the throat 

 and the chin white ; sides of the head and throat below the eye warm brownish buff ; lower neck 

 in front dull buffy brown; rest of the underparts dull white, except the flanks, which are dark 

 hair-brown. 



It is only as a rare straggler to the British Isles that the present species can be included in the 

 present work, for, so far as I can ascertain, there is no authentic instance of its occurrence in any 

 other part of the Western Palsearctic area. It inhabits North America, ranging in winter as 

 far south as Mexico. 



It was first recorded as a British bird by Selby, but there is much reason to think that he 

 was mistaken (see Trans. Norf. & Norw. Nat. Soc. ii. p. 408, note). Eyton (Rarer Brit. B. p. 75) 

 describes and figures one obtained in the Menai Straits, North Wales, in the winter of 1830-31. 

 Thompson (B. of Irel. iii. p. 161) records the occurrence of one which was obtained, he states, 

 by Dr. Chute at Dingle Bay, on the coast of Kerry, in winter, about the year 1840. Watters 

 says that an immature bird was shot in co. Meath ; and Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey says he has 

 shot three in Ireland, two of which (' The Fowler in Ireland,' p. 121) were obtained " in the 

 severe frost of December, 1878, in Cork Harbour, and the other in the yet more severe weather 

 of January, 1881, on the north coast of Kerry." He also heard of a solitary bird being shot 

 near Sligo the same winter, which, he believes, was not preserved. He adds that Mr. Glennon, 

 the Dublin bird-stuffer, informed him that he had never received but one specimen, which was 

 no. 6 recorded below. 



There are many other records of the occurrence of this Merganser in Great Britain, but not 

 a few of these are open to doubt. Mr. J. J. Dalgleish, in his list of North- American birds which 

 have occurred in Europe (Auk, 1880, p. 217), enumerates eleven, since which two more have 

 been recorded, making thirteen as follows : — 



1. One, Yarmouth, winter of 1829 (Selby, Trans. Nat. Hist. Northumberl. i. p. 292 ; Edinb. Journ. Nat. 



& Geogr. n. s. iii. p. 238; see Trans. Norf. & Norw. Nat. Soc. ii. p. 408). 



2. One, Menai Straits, near Bangor (Eyton, Hist. Ear. Brit. B. p. 75). 



3. One, Burton Park, Petworth, Sussex (Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 3, iii. p. 387). 



4. One, Norfolk (Blyth, Naturalist, 1838, p. 413; Stevens & Southwell, B. Norf. iii. p. 228). 



5. One, Dingle Bay, co. Kerry (Thompson, B. of Irel. iii. p. 161). 



6. One, co. Meath (Watters, B. of Irel. p. 215). 



7. Caithness (Sinclair, Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edinb. ii. p. 340). 



8. A pair near Leeds (Gould, B. of Gt. Britain, vol. v.). 



9. One, Somersetshire (Baker, Somerset. Archaeolog. Proc. p. 146). 



10. Three seen, Frith of Forth (Colquhoun, Sporting Days, pp. 20, 21). 



11. Two, Sheerness, March 1870 (Mathew, Zoologist, 1870, p. 2182). 



12. Three shot by Sir R. Payne-Gallwey — two in Cork Harbour in December 1878, and one on the north 



coast of Kerry in January 1881. 



13. Two, near Barmouth, off the Welsh coast, 1864, shot by Sir William Clayton (W. Earle, Esq., in 



epist. to R. W. Chase, Esq.) . These specimens were sent to Mr. Chase, and are, I believe, still in 

 his collection. 



