RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 395 



The intestine of a male in the first winter is 6 feet 8 inches long, its 

 greatest diameter half an inch, wider towards the rectum than at the upper 

 part, where the diameter is 4 twelfths. Rectum A\ inches long, exclusive of 

 the cloaca. Coeca 2\ inches. Contents of stomach, remains of fishes and a 

 great quantity of quartz fragments. 



An adult female. (Esophagus 10^ inches long; stomach 2 inches long; 

 intestine 5 feet 3 inches; rectum 41; coeca 2^. The trachea 9 inches long, 

 of uniform diameter, 4 twelfths, with a very slight dilatation toward the 

 lower part, and at the lower larynx contracted to 3 twelfths; the last ring is 

 very large, laterally dilated, but symmetrical; the bronchi come off at the 

 distance of 5 twelfths from each other, and are composed of 25 rings. The 

 tracheal rings 150. 



RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 



*+-Mergus serrator, Linn. 

 PLATE CCCCXII Male and Female. 



The range of the Red-breasted Merganser is of vast extent. In North 

 America I have found it pretty generally dispersed during winter and 

 even to a late period in spring, from Texas to Labrador; and in the Fauna 

 Boreal i-Americana Mr. Swainson describes a male killed on the Saskat- 

 chewan. No date is mentioned, nor is any thing said as to its habits, which 

 would lead me to believe that it must be a rare bird in the Fur Countries. 

 It is found on the western coast however, and has been shot not far from the 

 mouth of the Columbia river by a gentleman of Boston engaged in the fur- 

 trade, and who is well acquainted with the water-birds of our country. In 

 winter it is to be met with throughout the Union, on almost every unfrozen 

 stream; but when the cold increases so as to close the waters it removes 

 southward until it finds a suitable place. 



This species is by choice mostly dependent on fresh water for its 

 sustenance; but when the winters are very severe it throws itself into the 

 salt lagoons or bays, and there seeks for prey to which it is not well 

 accustomed, and which is rather more difficult to be overtaken, than that 

 which is confined in the narrow mountain-streams for which it shews a 



