RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 
107 
natural predilection greater than even that of the Goosander, Mergus 
Merganser. It breeds in many parts of our Middle and Eastern States, and 
on two occasions I have found the female in charge of her brood in the lower 
parts of Kentucky. In the States of New York, Massachusetts, and Maine 
it is by no means a rare occurrence to meet with the nest of this bird along 
the borders of small secluded lakes. It is as common at this season in the 
British provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and it is still more 
plentiful on the islands of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as well as on the streams 
of Newfoundland and Labrador. 
The Red-breasted Merganser is best known throughout the United States 
by the name of “ Shell-drake.” It is, like all the species of its tribe, a most 
expert diver, and on being fired at with a flint-locked gun generally escapes 
by disappearing before the shot reaches the place where it has been. Its 
flight is similar to that of the Goosander, being strong, rapid, and remarkably 
well sustained when it is travelling to a considerable distance. Gluttonous 
in the extreme, it frequently gorges itself so as to be unable to rise. I have 
several times seen one of them obliged to eject a great part of the contents 
of its stomach and gullet before it could fly off, and some which I have kept 
a day or two in confinement have died in consequence of swallowing too 
many fishes. 
The “ Shell-drake,” according to the latitude of the place which it has 
selected, and the degree of forwardness of the season, begins to form its nest 
from the first of March until the middle of May. Some nests which I 
examined in Labrador had not their full complement of eggs until about the 
20th of June. In that country, as well as in several parts of the United 
States, where I have found the nests, they were placed within a very short 
distance of the margins of fresh-water ponds, among rank grasses and sedges, 
or beneath the low bushes. The nest bears a great resemblance to that of 
the Eider Duck, but is a good deal smaller, and better fashioned. It is made 
of dry weeds and mosses of various kinds, and is warmly lined with down 
from the breast of the female bird, for the male leaves her as soon as she has 
completed the laying of the eggs, the number of which I have never found 
to exceed ten, they being more frequently six or eight. It is a very 
remarkable fact that the eggs in this family of birds are usually even in 
number, whereas in most land birds they^are odd. The eggs of the Red- 
breasted Merganser measure two and a half inches in length, an inch and 
five-eighths in breadth, resemble in form those of the domestic fowl, and are 
of a uniform plain dull yellowish cream-colour. 
When one approaches the nest, the female usually slides or runs off a few 
paces, and then takes to wing. I have never observed the paths to the nests 
which some authors have described, and cannot well imagine why there 
