RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 
245 
®lude the sportsman or his dog, by diving and coming 
•ip at a great distance, raising the hill only above 
"'ater, and dipping down again with the greatest silence. 
The young nviles of a year old are often found in the 
plumage of the female ; their food consists of small 
fry, and various kinds of shell-lish. 
The red-breasted merganser is said, by Pennant, to 
'"•eed on Loch Mari in the county of Ross, in North 
Britain, and also in the Isle of Ila3^ Latham informs 
*ts, that it inhabits most parts of the north of Europe 
the continent, and as high as Iceland ; also in the 
frussian dominions about the great rivers of Siberia, 
I *Ud the Lake Baikal. Is said to bo frequent in 
Greenland, where it breeds on the shores. The iuha- 
I'itants often take it by darts thrown at it, especially 
*h August, being then in moult. At Hudson’s Bay, 
According to Hutchins, they come in pairs about the 
*’cginning of June, as soon as the ice breaks up, and 
*'uild soon after their arrival, chietly on dry spots of 
Sfouud in the islands ; lay from eight to thirteen white 
®ggs, the size of those of a duck; the nest is made of 
Withered grass, and lined with the down of the breast. 
Tile young are of a dirty brown, like young goslings. 
Ih October they all depart southward to the lake.s, 
"'here they may have open water. 
This species' is twenty-tn o inches in length, and 
thirty-two in e.vtent; the bill is two inches and three 
lUarters in length, of the colour of bright sealing wax, 
frdged above with dusky ; the nail at the tip, large, 
hlackish, and overhanging ; both mandibles are thickly 
I ’^i-'iT.iteil ; irides, rod ; head, furnished with a long hairy 
I ®''est, which is often pendent, but octtasionally erected ; 
Ihis, and part of the neck, is black, glossed with green ; 
the neck under this for two or three inches, is pure 
'''hitc, ending in a broad space of reddish ochre spotted 
"'ith black, which spreads over the lower part of the 
’hick and sides of the breast ; shoulders, back, and 
I tertials, deep velvety black, the first marked with a 
"Umber of singular roundish spots of white ; scapulars, 
"’hite ; wiiig-coverts, mostly white, crossed by two 
