The Hooded Merganser 



General Range. — Temperate North America. Breeds from central British 

 Columbia, Great Slave Lake, central Keewatin, and Newfoundland, south to southern 

 Oregon, northern New Mexico, Louisiana, and Florida; winters from southern British 

 Columbia, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Ohio, and Massachusetts, south to the Gulf 

 States, Cuba, Mexico, and Lower California; casual in Alaska, Greenland, and the 

 British Isles. 



Occurrence in California. — Rather rare spring and fall migrant and winter 

 resident. Found in coastal marshes and upon sluggish interior streams or reservoirs. 



Authorities. — Newberry (Mergus cucullatus), Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. vi., 

 1857, p. 104 (San Francisco); Evermann, Auk, vol. iii., 1886, p. 89 (Ventura Co.); 

 Willett, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 7, 1912, p. 22 (status in s. Calif.). 



THE HOODED MERGANSER is so rare a visitor within our bor- 

 ders that it is always considered worth while to report its special occur- 

 rence. Unlike the two larger species, it does not frequent swift streams 

 nor limit its attention to emerald waters. A sluggish lagoon or a quiet 

 pond suits it better. The color of the water doesn't matter, either, 

 so long as there is an abundance of water-insects, small fish, or tadpoles. 



The beauty of this bird ought to exempt it from persecution. Its 

 flesh is unfit for the table, and its numbers do not justify systematic 

 pursuit. Nevertheless, it has wings, and its swift eccentric flight, resem- 

 bling that of a Green-winged Teal, Bowles says, provokes the skill of 

 every wayside marksman. Naturally timid, it is not suffered to display 

 its beauty, and incessant gun-fire has made it exceedingly wild. 



The Hooded Merganser has been reported nesting as far south as 

 southern Oregon and its occurrence in our northwestern counties in the 

 breeding season is not improbable. For this reason I quote two para- 

 graphs by Bowles which appeared in "The Birds of Washington": 



"During early March the flocks separate into pairs, and late in 

 April all retire to fresh water to breed, the majority going north of the 

 United States, but many remaining to nest along the northern border. 

 About the first of May a pair may occasionally be found nesting near 

 any one of the smaller unfrequented lakes of Washington, a natural 

 hollow or large woodpecker hole in a tree near the water being selected 

 for a nesting place. The nest is located at an elevation of from twenty 

 to sometimes sixty feet from the ground, the composition being mainly 

 weeds and grass, with a thick inner lining of feathers. Like the other 

 Mergansers again, the male deserts his mate as soon as the eggs are laid, 

 leaving her to feed herself and attend to the young. 



"Almost as soon as the eggs are hatched, the female transports the 

 babies to the water, carrying each one carefully in her bill, as is probably 

 the habit of all tree-nesting ducks. This is the rule, but I have been 

 informed, on what I believe to be good authority, that these birds oc- 



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