RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 
85 
it, especially in August, being then in moult. At Hudson’s bay, 
according to Hutchins, they come in pairs about the beginning of 
June, as soon as the ice breaks up, and build soon after their ar- 
rival, chiefly on dry spots of ground in the islands ; lay from eight 
to thirteen white 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 goslins. 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 
color 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 occasionally erected, as repre- 
sented 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 velvetty black, the first marked 
with a number of singular roundisli 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, 
gray, 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 
color; 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 
Y 
VOL. VIII. 
