RED BREASTED MERGANSER. — 
ALLAN BROOKS. 
The mergansers, more generally known 
as sawbills, or shelldrakes, are represented 
on the North American continent by 3 spe- 
cies, the goosander, or American merganser, 
the red breasted merganser, and the hooded 
merganser; with a 4th, the smew, as ‘an 
occasional straggler from Europe. 
- The males of the goosander and red 
breasted merganser are easily distinguished, 
the latter having a spotted breast band, and 
handsomely marked flanks, against the im- 
spring, when the larger species has already 
laid its eggs. I have never found the red 
breasted species breeding in Southern Brit- 
ish Columbia. 
Both the larger species feed almost ex- 
clusively on fish, and do more damage than 
any other fish-eating bird. Where they fre- 
quent salmon or trout streams they should 
be killed whenever possible. I know of 
numbers of streams that are ruined for fish- 
ing by the depredations of sawbills and 

RED BREASTED 
maculate lower surface of the 
ander. 
The females of the 2 species are much 
alike, those of the red breasted species be- 
ing the smaller with proportionately longer 
bills. The red breasted merganser seems 
to be a much more maritime bird than its 
congener. In British Columbia the red 
breasted merganser is seldom seen on the 
fresh water rivers and lakes until the 
breeding season is at hand. It has a more 
Northerly breeding range than the goosan- 
der, and migrates Northward late in the 
goos- 
MERGANSER. MERGANSER SERRATOR, 
herons. The number of small fry a mergan- 
ser can consume is almost incredible, and 
where fish are plentiful these birds do not 
cease feeding until full to the throat. 
As might be expected from their diet, 
their flesh is at all times uneatable, unlike 
that of the hooded merganser, which, feed- 
ing as it does mostly on water insects, is 
generally a fair table bird. 
In the red breasted merganser the iris 
is brown in the male and yellow in the fe- 
male; bill carmine to-reddish, with the cul- 
men dusky; feet bright red. 

Indiscretion is the better part of love. —-Life. 
270 
