THE HOODED MERGANSERS. 
55 
^nd diving. I have never seen one on land, but I once saw a 
number asleep on the water about mid-day in March. 
“They feed entirely under water. I have examined many 
Without ever finding any vegetable matter in their gizzards, or 
anything but small fish and water-insects, chiefly a kind of 
cricket (?), and these they pursue under water with great 
rapidity, as may be guessed by watching in clear water a hard- 
pressed, slightly-winged bird : when turning, it dives under the 
boat. No Duck can touch them at diving ; even Grebes and 
Cormorants, and I have watched both perform the same 
rnanoeuvre, are scarcely so rapid in their movements under 
water. They use their wings in diving, though they do not 
spread them fully, so that you must not judge of their per- 
formance by birds with wings injured above the carpal joint, 
but where the injury is merely on the carpus, sufficient to 
prevent flight, but not otherwise serious, their diving is a thing 
to watch.” 
Nest — Placed in a hollow tree. 
Eggs, — Seven or eight in number, and scarcely to be told 
from those of the Wigeon. Mr. Seebohm says that they can 
be distinguished by their heavier weight, and Wolley also 
found that they were of a smoother texture. They are creamy 
white in colour. Axis, I'p-a'i inches; diam., 1'45-1'55- 
Down. — Very pale, ashy-white and much mixed with tiny 
scraps of wood from the interior of the tree in which the nest 
is placed. The filamentous tips to the down are also ashy- 
white, and there is an indistinct white “eye ’’-spot. 
the hooded mergansers, genus lophodytes. 
Lophodytes, Reichenb. Av. Syst. Nat. p. ix. (1852). 
Type, L. aicuUatus (Linn.). 
Count Salvadori separates the Hooded Mergansers from the 
True Mergansers on account of the form of the serrations in 
the bill. In both mandibles these are short and blunt, and 
are not distinctly inclined backwards at the tips. The genus 
Lophodytes is distinguished from the Smew by having the taf* 
sus shorter than the culmen. 
