THE HOODED MERGANSER. 
115 
Duck ; at least I have found their nests in such situations seven or eight 
times, although I never saw one of them alight on the branch of a tree, as 
the birds just mentioned are wont to do. They dive as it were directly 
into their wooden burrows, where, on a few dried weeds and feathers of 
diiferent kinds, with a small quantity of down from the breast of the female, 
the eggs are deposited. They are from five to eight, measure one inch and 
three-fourths by one and three-eighths, and in other respects perfectly 
resemble those of the Red-breasted Merganser. 
The young, like those of the Wood Duck, are conveyed to the water by 
their mother, who carries them gently in her bill; for the male takes no part 
in providing for his offspring, but abandons his mate as soon as incubation 
has commenced. The affectionate mother leads her young among the tall 
rank grasses which fill the shallow pools or the borders of creeks, and 
teaches them to procure snails, tadpoles, and insects. The eggs are laid in 
May, and the young are out some time in June. On two occasions the 
parents would not abandon the young, although I expected that the noises 
which I made would have induced them to do so ; they both followed their 
offspring into the net which I had set for them. The young all died in 
two days, when I restored the old birds to liberty. 
The Hooded Merganser, as well as all the other species with which I am 
acquainted, moves with ease on the ground, nay, even runs with speed. 
Those which leave the United States, take their departure from the first of 
March to the middle of May ; and I am induced to believe that probably 
one-third of them tarry for the purpose of breeding on the margins of 
several of our great lakes. When migrating, they fly at a great height, in 
small loose flocks, without any regard to order. Their notes consist of a 
iind of rough grunt, variously modulated, but by no means musical, and 
resembling the syllables croo, croo, crook. The female repeats it six or 
seven times in succession, when she sees her young in danger. The same 
noise is made by the male, either when courting on the water, or as he 
passes on wing near the hole where the female is laying one of her eggs. 
The males do not acquire the full beauty of their plumage until the third 
spring, but resemble the females for the first year. In the course of the 
second, the crest becomes more developed, and the white and black mark- 
ings about the head and body are more distinct. The third spring they 
are complete, such as you see the bird represented in the plate. 
Dr. Bachman has favoured me with the following note respecting this 
species : — “ On the 19th April, 1838, at the plantation of Major Poeches, on 
the Santee river, in South Carolina, I obtained an old female Merganser and 
Her five young ones, the latter apparently from two to three weeks old. 
They were in a very small pond, and could not be driven from it. As we 
