March i6, igoi>] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
207 
"I ain't sure but the best way would be for us to make a 
county matter of it altogether, not to go to the State 
Legislature at all, but just to make our county commis- 
sioners order an election held about this here and let us 
who are interested decide it for ourselves. If we did 
that, 1 believe the law could not be changed until we 
ourselves had voted 'on it again. 
"The people who live in this county most all make 
their livings by farming in summer and gunning in win- 
ter, when the ducks are here, and we are the ones who 
want plenty of ducks, for they are a good share of our 
living. As it is now, the}' come and are chased away, and 
we don't get a half a chance at them. Men go out to sail 
ducks, and if they don't find ducks they sail geese, and 
after they have driven the geese away they sail boobies and 
blue peters. They don't make any money, themselves, and 
they won't let no one else make any. It's all wrong, I 
tell ye, and somehow, some time before long, it's got to be 
stopped." 
I give these remarks for what they are worth, as the 
opinions of a professional gunner whose living during the 
winter months is earned in this way. He belongs to a 
class whose interest it is to have the duck crop each j'car 
as large as possible. 
I should say for the benefit of those ignorant of the 
Ipcalitj'. that in this county the season. for wildfowd ex- 
tends from Nov. lo to March 31. Shooting is permitted 
on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of each week. 
M. M. 
American Wildfowl and How 
Take Them* — XXVL 
to 
^ . BY GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL. 
[CoKiinued /rani page 186.] 
Fish Ducks. 
Sub-family Merginm. 
The mergansers, or. as they are often called, the fish- 
ing ducks, may be distinguished from all others of the 
Anatidce by their narrow and round (not flattened) bills, 
always provided with sharp, backward-directed, tooth- 
like lamelke. Except for their bills, they are like the sea 
ducks. They are birds of handsome plumage, always 
provided with a crest, which in the male may be enor- 
mously enlarged and very striking, as in the hooded 
merganser, or merely puffy, with brilliant iridescent hues, 
as in the goosander. The mergansers feed almost alto- 
gether on , small fish, which tliey capture by diving, and 
as a consequence their flesh is not at all desirable. -All 
our species are widely distributed over North America. 
American Merganser. 
Merganser americanus (Cass.). 
The adult has the head and upper neck greenish black, 
with brilliant metallic reflections, the head being puffy 
and the feathers slightb' longest on the back of the head. 
The back is black, fading to ashy gray on the rump and 
upper tail coverts. The primaries and secondaries are 
black, but the rest of the wing is chiefly white, crossed 
by a black bar. The under parts are white, tinged with 
salmon color, rosy or pinkish, which does not last long 
after death. In old skins, the breast feathers often be" 
coriie barred with ashy. The tail is ashy gray,- with 
bill, eyes and feet bright red. Length about 26 inches. 
In the female the head and neck are reddish brown, 
and there is a long crest on the back of the head, much 
more marked than in the male. The chin and throat 
are white, the upper parts gray.« Abdut' one-half of each 
secondary feather is white, forming a speculum on the 
wing. The primaries are black, the flanks and tail gray. 
The lower parts are pinkish salmon color in life, fading 
to white. "The bill and feet are red. 
Valueless as food, the great merganser is certainly one 
of our most beautiful and graceful birds. It is. a close 
relative to the goosander of Europe, and was long con- 
AMERICAN MERGANSER. 
sSdered to be the same bird. The- differences on which 
they are separated are; very slight. The merganser is a 
resident of the extreme North in summer. It is found in 
-\laska, though apparently not very common there; and 
in fact it does not seem to be a very common bird any- 
where, both the other species exceeding it in numbers. 
It is one of our most hardy birds, and one of the last to 
go South in autumn; and indeed it will remain about air 
holes in the rivers, where it can fish, long after most other 
ducks have taken their departure for the South. 
It is well established that goosander breeds in the 
hollows of trees, wherever trees are accessible, though 
some observ'erss who have reported nests of this species 
from, the far l^Torth, beyond where timber grows, state 
that it builds its nest upon the ground in the ordinary 
manner of many of the salt-water ducks. 
Definite information as to the breeding habits of this 
merganser were first given by Mr. Geo. A. Boardman, 
,of Calais, Me., to whom ornithology owes so much. In 
F9REST AND Stream he says: 
" "Many years ago I was up at Grand Lake Stream 
salmon fishing, when I saw a large duck fly into a hole 
jbigh up jn 3 l.arge birch tree. The log drivers sai^ \% 
was a sheldrake, and had nested there many, years. I 
was anxious to see what kind of a merganser it was. 
vVfter the log drivers' day's work was done one . of them 
b}^ driving spikes managed to get up. The old bird flew 
out, and he brought down one egg, and said there were 
seven more. I then got the man to arrange a noose over 
the hole, and the next morning we had the old bird 
hung by the neck, and the eight eggs wei^e new to 
science. The log drivers said they had seen the old bird 
bring down the young in her bilk to the water. Several 
years Utter Mr. John Krider, of Philadelphia, went with 
me to the same tree and collected eggs. He was a well- 
known collector. Mr. Audubon was mistaken in his 
account of the nesting of this merganser, since he de- 
scribes it as nesting on the ground among rushes, in 
the manner of the senator, having a large nest raised 
seven or eight inches above the surface." 
Often, while, traveling along streams in uninhabited 
parts of the country, one may come upon a mother mer- 
ganser and her brood of tiny young and may drive them 
before him for miles along the stream, the birds keeping 
well out of his way, and tbe mother watching over them 
with the tenderest care. It is a curious sight to see these 
tiny creatures run, as it seems, over the surface of 
the water, at the same time flapping their tiny featherless 
wing, but making extraordinary progress the while. 
The goosander, like others of its kind, feeds almost 
exclusively on fish. It is said that' in the autumn its flesh 
is not noticeably bad, but that in spring it is exceedingly 
rank and oily. 
Red-Breasted Merganser^ Sheldrake. 
Merganser serrator (.Linn.). 
The adult male has the head greenish black, with some 
metallic reflections of violet and purple. The crest is a 
ragged one, chiefly on the back of the head; the feathers 
are irregular, but few of them being long. There is a 
well-marked white collar around the upper neck beloAV 
the black. The lower neck and breast are pale pinkish 
brown, streaked with black from above downward. The 
back and inner scapulars are black; the lower back and 
rump grayish, waved with black and white; the tail, gray- 
ish brown. The wing is chiefly white; crossed by two 
black bars. The primaries are brownish black,- and the 
outer webs of the inner secondaries edged ^ith the^same 
color. On the side of the breast, in front of Hhe bend in 
RED-BREASTED MERGAN,SER. 
the wing, is a patch of white feathers, : margined with 
black. The sides are barred with black, and' white, and 
the rest' of the under parts white. The bill, eyes and 
feet are bright red. Length about 22 inches. In this 
species the nostrils are situated near to the base of the 
bill, whereas in the goosander they are nearly half way 
between the base and tip of the bill. This will enable the 
observer to distinguish between the two species. 
The adult female has the top of the head and crest 
reddish brown; the sides of head and neck somewhat 
paler, fading to white on the throat. The upper parts 
are dark ashy gray; the sides almost the same, but some- 
what paler. There is a wdiite patch on the wing, divided 
by a black bar. The under parts are white, often with a 
pinkish or salmon tinge in both seXes, but this is by no 
means always present. The bill, legs and feet are like 
those in the male, but perhaps a little duller. 
Like the goosander, this species belongs to the North- 
ern Hemisphere at large, and is found in Europe, China. 
Japan and other islands of the Pacific. Mr. Shepherd 
found it breeding in Iceland, in company with Barrow's 
golden-eye, and Old World observers generally have 
reported it as abundant in the North.' It occurs regu- 
larly as a resident in Greenland, and of course in North 
America is quite a common species. It has been reported 
in summer from Alaska, and from Maine, and breeds 
in both sections. Mr. MacFarlane found it also breeding 
on the Anderson River, in the far North. The nest is 
reported to be closely similar to that of the black duck, 
and the parent often lines it with down plucked from her 
breast. 
Like the preceding species, the red-breasted merganser 
is a tough and hardy bird, well fitted to endure our 
Northern winters, and not proceeding s^'dthward so long' 
as there are any open waters in which il can gaih a live- 
lihood. It spends much of its time on the salt wat^;r and 
associates more or less with the winter sea ducks of the 
New England coast, but more perhaps with the whistlers 
than with any others. 
The red-breasted merganser feeds altogether on fish, 
and for this reason has no value whatever as a table bird. 
Dr. D. G. Elliot, in his excellent work on "North 
American Wildfowl," gives a graphic description of their 
fishing which is well worth reproducing. He says: 
"When engaged in fishing, by their rapid diving and 
maneuvering beneath the w^aters they cause the srriall 
fish — if the schools are of any size — to become widely 
scattered, and many rise close to, the surface. The gulls 
take advantage of such opportunities and pounce upon 
their luckless finny prey from above, and then, with 
ducks diving into the depths and gulls plunging from 
above, the scene is a very lively one. I remember on one 
occasion watching a number of this merganser engaged 
in fishing in a cove, when their movements attracted to 
thern a i^rge flock of Bonapa'-te's gull (Larus philor 
delphia), which hovered over the ducks for a moment and 
then began to plunge head foremost into the water, one 
after another, in rapid succession, emerging, frequently 
with a small fish in the bill. The mergansers paid no 
attention to their fellow fishermen, although at times a 
plunging gull would come perilously near one of the 
saw-billed gentry as he rose from the depths; and what 
with the rising and disappearing mergansers and the air 
above them filled with the forms of the darting gulls, ex- 
ecuting all manner of swift and graceful evolutions, the 
scene was very spirited and full of animation." 
The red-breasted merganser is swift of wing, and, as 
plight be imagined, an expert diver. It frequently comes 
in very gently to decoys, dashing along at great speed, 
until it reaches the point where it wishes to alight, and 
then, without checking its flight, throwing itself breast 
down upon the water and sliding over it for some dis- 
tance. After alighting, it looks about for a moment, 
alternately raising and depressing its crest, and if it sees 
nothing to alarm it, goes to work fishing. There is no 
reason for shooting it, as it is worthless for food. Among 
the common names applied to this bird in different sec- 
tions' of the country are sheldrake, saw-bill, fisherman, 
pied sheldrake, shelduck and big saw-bill. 
Hooded Merganser. 
Lophodytes cucullatus (Linn.). 
Adult , male has the head, neck, back and scapulars 
black. The very long full crest is pure white, mar- 
gined Avith black. The wing coverts arc gray, fading to 
ash color behind, and the greater coverts are black at the 
base and tipped with white, showing a distinct black and 
white band across the wing. The secondaries are white, 
the basal portion black, which gives the effect of two 
wide white wing bars, bordered in front by two narrow 
black wing bars. In front of the wing on the side of the 
breast are two black and two white bars, crescent- 
shaped. The sides and flanks are rusty brown or tawny, 
growing darker toward the tail, and crossed by fine black 
lines. The under parts generally are white; the under 
tail coverts streaked with dusky. The bill is black, eye 
bright yellow and the feet yellowish. Length about 18 
inclies. 
Jn the female the head and crest are reddish brown 
and the upper parts are grayish brown. The chin and 
throat are white; the flanks grayish brown. There is a 
patch on the wing, white, crossed by a black bar, and the 
under parts generally are white. The bill is yellowish, 
darkening to brown on the margin and on the nail. 
The hooded merganser is one of the most striking of 
our North American ducks. It is exclusively a North 
American species, and occurs in Europe only as a strag- 
gler. Throughout the whole of North America, how- 
ever, it is generally distributed, and seems to be no less 
abundant, for example, in Nebraska than it is on the 
Atlantic or: Pacific coasts. 
The hooded merganser breeds over much of the 
country in suitable localities. Mr. Boardman has found 
it breeding abundantly in Maine, where its nests were 
always found in the hollows of trees, the cavity being 
usually lined with grass, leaves and down. He has re- 
lated the following curious incident in regard to the 
breeding of this bird: 
"On one of my collecting trips my attention was called 
by the log drivers to a singular contest between two 
ducks — it proved to be a female wood duck and a female 
hooded merganser — for the possession of a hollow tree. 
Two birds had been observed for several days contestnig 
for the nest, neither permitting the other to remain in 
peaceful occupancy. The nest was found to contain eight- 
een fresh eggs, of which one-third belonged to the mer- 
ganser, and as the nest was lined with the down of the 
merganser it appeared probable this bird was the right- 
ful owner of the premises." 
Audubon states that the hooded merganser bred 
ill Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana; and Dr. Bachman be- 
lieved- that it bred in South Carolina, It certainly 
breeds, in Florida. During its migrations, the hairy- 
HOODED MERGANSER. 
head) as. dit, is often calledy is common in New Englaiid', . 
and generally all along the coast, at least as far as South' 
Carolina. In the marshes of Currituck Sound I have 
seen- them in great numbers, sometimes in flocks of over 
one hundred individuals. 
The hooded merganser is a bird of exceedingly swift 
flight, and at a little distance may often be taken for 
a canvasback or blackhead as it flies swiftly toward one. 
Ic is an unsuspicious bird, coming up readily to decoys* 
striking the water with a swift rush, and for a few mo- 
ments after alighting, swimming about alertly, as if to 
observe its surroundings. Usually it flies with great 
directness, and is not easily frightened into changing 
its course. The hooded merganser is an extremely ex- 
pert swimmer and diver, and it is a beautiful sight to 
watch a small body of them, as one sometimes may, 
when they are feeding without knowledge of the presence 
of an enemy. At such times the startling plumage of the 
male is seen to very great advantage, and one is greatly 
attracted by the beauty of his plumage and the grace of 
his motions. 
This bird rejoices in a varied of names, of which 
water-pheasant, hairy-crown, hairy^head, saw-bill diver. 
I 
