The American Merganser 



"Suddenly we heard a hoarse masculine 'quack' almost under our 

 feet and a beautiful adult American Merganser, with glossy auburn head 

 and crest, glided out, followed by eighteen or twenty babies not over a 



week old. The 

 water was as smooth 

 as glass, and this 

 pretty procession 

 paid no attention to 

 us as it passed the 

 length of the short 

 walk within five feet 

 of where we stood. 

 The little ones kept 

 close in the wake of 

 the mother, moving 

 quickly here and 

 there, never quiet a 

 minute, and chang- 

 ing positions so rap- 

 idly that it was im- 

 possible to accu- 

 rately count them. 

 The mother's 

 commanding 

 'quack' seemed to 

 keep the little ones 

 in perfect obedience 

 and they behaved 

 like a company of 

 little soldiers. They 

 were a pretty golden 

 brown, each with a 

 conspicuous 

 white spot on each 

 wing. Evidently 

 they were after 

 their supper and all 

 working hard. 

 They passed 

 quickly on, then tacked back a little further out, then gradually worked 

 across the cove and into the willows a few hundred yards along the shore. 

 "Several times the mother raised almost out of the water and dashed 



Taken at Santa Cruz Island 



RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, MALE. 



Photo by the Author 

 IN SURF 



1746 



