106 
RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 
The intestine of a male in the first .winter is 6 feet 8 inches long, its 
greatest diameter half an inch, wider towards the rectum than at the upper 
part, where the. diameter is 4 twelfths. Rectum 44 inches long, exclusive 
of the cloaca. Coeca 24 inches. Contents of stomach, remains of fishes and 
a great quantity of quartz fragments. 
An adult female. (Esophagus 104 inches long ; stomach 2 inches long ; 
intestine 5 feet 3 inches ; rectum 44 ; coeca 2 T V The trachea 9 inches long, 
of uniform diameter, 4 twelfths, with a very slight dilatation toward the 
lower part, and at the lower larynx contracted to 3 twelfths ; the last ring 
is very large, laterally dilated, but symmetrical ; the bronchi come off at the 
distance of 5 twelfths from each other, and are composed of 25 rings. The 
tracheal rings 150. 
RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 
Mergus serrator, Linn . 
PLATE CCCGXII. — Male and Female. 
The range of the Red-breasted Merganser is of vast extent. In North 
America I have found it pretty generally dispersed during winter and 
even to a late period in spring, from Texas to Labrador ; and in the Fauna 
Boreali-Americana Mr. Swainson describes a male killed on the Saskat- 
chewan. No date is mentioned, nor is any thing said as to its habits, which 
would lead me to believe that it must be a rare bird in the Fur Countries. 
It is found on the western coast, however, and has been shot not far from the 
mouth of the Columbia river by a gentleman of Boston engaged in the fur- 
trade, and who is well acquainted with the water-birds of our country. In 
winter it is to be met with throughout the Union, on almost every unfrozen 
stream ; but when the cold increases so as to close the waters it removes 
southward until it finds a suitable place. 
This species is by choice mostly dependent on fresh water for its 
sustenance ; but when the winters are very severe it throws itself into the 
salt lagoons . or bays, and there seeks for prey to which it is not well 
accustomed, and which is rather more difficult to be overtaken, than that 
which is confined in the narrow mountain-streams for which it shews a 
