THE UED-BUEASTED MERGANSEK. 
209 
excellent opportunities constantly occur for watching the habits 
of diving birds. 
The Merganser is a very shy bird, but becomes considerably 
more confident when after heavy rains it wishes to proceed as 
far as the burn-mouths, where the trout are then numerous. I 
remember seeing one, after swimming as far as a trout-net 
which had been set across a narrow creek, fly neatly over the 
corks, and then continue to dive and swim towards the head 
of the large expanse of water beyond, into which numerous 
burns were running. There the poor bird received from a 
concealed gunner a shot which broke its wing, but even at 
that disadvantage it swam under water as far as the net, in 
which the onlookers fully expected it to become entangled, 
but, rising immediately in front, at about the middle of the 
buoy-line, it dived once more, and, so far from being flurried 
by the noise and stone -throwing which was going on in the 
rear, it deliberately avoided the net, either by creeping beneath 
or by passing out at the sides ; so that when, some few minutes 
afterwards, its pursuer was about to haul up the net in triumph, 
his expected prize was swimming away, no longer diving, 
several hundred yards to seaward. 
In a storm, when the surf is heavy upon the rocks, the 
Mergansers seek shelter in the voes, where they often gather 
into flocks of from twenty to thirty, but these break up almost 
immediately upon the return of calmer weather. 
Laying begins about the middle of May, and continues until 
the middle or end of June. The latest fresh egg I have seen 
was taken on the 2 2d of August, but in that instance the nest 
had been robbed once already. The Merganser often makes 
its nest among long grass, but it seems to prefer something in 
the form of a roof ; and thus it is that in suitable localities the 
eggs are most commonly found under rocks, in rabbit-burrows, 
and even in a crevice at the foundation of an old loose wall. 
Wliatever be the situation chosen, the nest almost always con- 
sists of a holloa scraped in the ground, lined to a greater or 
less extent with down, feathers, dead plants, and with heather 
