RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 
105 
eggs, the size of those of a duck ; the nest is made of withered 
grass, and lined with the down of the breast. The young are 
of a dirty brown, like young goslings. In October they all 
depart southward to the lakes, where they may have open 
water. 
This species is twenty-two inches in length, and thirty-two 
in extent ; the bill is two inches and three quarters in length, 
of the colour of bright sealing wax, ridged above with dusky ; 
the nail at the tip, large, blackish, and overhanging; both 
mandibles are thickly serrated; irides, red; head, furnished 
with a long hairy crest, which is often pendent, but occasion- 
ally erected, as represented in the plate ; this, and part of the 
neck is black, glossed with green ; the neck under this, for two 
or three inches, is pure white, ending in a broad space of 
reddish ochre spotted with black, which spreads over the lower 
part of the neck and sides of the breast ; shoulders, back, and 
tertials, deep velvety black, the first marked with a number 
of singular roundish spots of white ; scapulars, white ; wing- 
coverts, mostly white, crossed by two narrow bands of black ; 
primaries, black ; secondaries, white ; several of the latter edged 
with black ; lower part of the back, the rump, and tail-coverts, 
grey, speckled with black; sides under the wings, elegantly 
crossed with numerous waving lines of black ; belly and vent, 
white ; legs and feet, red ; the tail, dusky ash ; the black of 
the back passes up the hind neck in a narrow band to the head. 
The female is twenty-one inches in length, and thirty in ex- 
tent ; the crested head and part of the neck are of a dull sorrel 
colour ; irides, yellow ; legs and bill red, upper parts, dusky 
slate; wings, black; greater coverts, largely tipt with white; 
secondaries, nearly all white ; sides of the breast, slightly 
dusky ; whole lower parts, pure white ; the tail is of a lighter 
slate than the back. The crest is much shorter than in the 
male, and sometimes there is a slight tinge of ferruginous on 
the breast. 
The windpipe of the male of this species is very curious, 
and differs something from that of the goosander. About two 
