360 
by a darker colour; black feathers shew 
themselves upon the top of the head 
and white ones appear upon the wing 
coverts. 
Temminck observes that " the female 
and young males of this species, are with dif- 
ficulty distinguished from those of the Red- 
breasted Merganser, but they will not be 
mistaken if attention be paid to the shape 
and colour of the speculum upon the wings, 
which in this, is of a single colour; whereas 
it is transversely streaked with ash colour in 
the females, and with dusky in the young 
males of the Red— breasted Merganser/* 
" The female lays twelve or fourteen 
whitish eggs, nearly equally pointed at 
both ends, among the stones at the water's 
edge, in bushes, or in hollow trees." 
According to Acerbi, this species is 
common in some parts of Finland, during 
the breeding season ; and their eggs are 
much coveted by the natives, who place 
decayed trees that are hollow near the 
banks of the river, which these birds enter 
and there deposit their eggs to the number 
of twenty : these the F inlanders take away 
2 w 
