LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS 
Order V. ANSERES 
DUCKS, GEESE AND SWANS. Family ANATIDAE 
The birds comprising this family are of greatly varying sizes, but all have 
webbed feet, and generally the bill is broader than high, and is serrated on the 
edges or provided with gutters to act as a strainer in assisting the birds to 
gather their food. 
129. Merganser. Mergus americanus. 
Range. — North America, breeding from the 
northern border of the United States northward. 
The three species of Mergansers are almost 
exclusively fish eating birds. Therefore their flesh 
is unpalatable and they are known as “Fish 
Ducks.” They are also sometimes called “Saw- 
Brownish buff: 
bills” because of the teeth-like serration on both 
the upper and the under mandibles. Unlike the 
other species of ducks, their bills are long, slend- 
er and rounded instead of being broad and flat; 
it is also hooked at the tip. Like the Cormorants, 
they often pursue and catch fish under the water, 
their teeth-like bills enabling them to firmly hold 
their prey. 
The American Mergansers, Goosanders, or Shel- 
drakes, as they are often called, are found botn 
on the coast and in the interior. Except in cer- 
tain mountainous regions, they breed chiefly north 
of the United States. The male bird has no crest 
and the head is a beautiful green, while the female has a reddish brown crest 
and head, shading to white on the chin. They build their nest in hollow trees 
near the water. It is made of grasses, leaves and moss and is lined with feath- 
ers from the breast of the female. During May, they lay from six to ten eggs 
of a creamy or buff color. Size 2.70 x 1.75. Data. — Gun Is., Lake Winnipeg. 
June 16, 1903. Eleven eggs in a nest of white down, located between two large 
boulders. Collector, Walter Raine. 
American Merganser 
Red-breasted Merganser 
87 
