DUCKS, GEESE, SWANS: AMERICAN MERGANSER 147 
instead of that bordering rushing mountain streams is that bordering 
sluggish wooded ponds and streams. Here, as Mr. Eaton says, “it is a 
beautiful sight to watch a company of these birds swimming briskly 
along among the lily pads, all flashing and closing their crests in time to 
their advance” (1909, I, 182). 
AMERICAN MERGANSER: Mergus americanus Cassin 
Description. — Male: Length 25-27 inches, wing 10.5-11.2, bill 1.9-2.2, 
tarsus 1.9-2. Female: Length 21-24 inches, wing 9.6-9.7, bill 1.8-2, tarsus 1.8-1.9. 
Bill long, narrow, serrated, tip overhanging, nostrils nearer middle than base. Adult 
male in winter and breeding plumage: Head black glossed with green, barely crested 
(crest not seen unless erected), hind neck and entire under parts white or pale salmon; 
forepart of back, black, hinder part and tail gray; wing largely while , with one 
black bar, flight feathers blackish; axillars and wing linings mainly white; iris, bill, 
legs, arid feet red. Adxdt male in post-nuptial eclipse: “Closely similar to adult 
female’’ (Wetmore), but without long crest. Adult female: Head and long, 
thin, horizontal crest tawny or cinnamon-brown; upperparts gray , speculum white 
crossed by one dusky bar; chin white, separated from white patch on throat by brown 
collar, neck grayish; underparts creamy or buffy. Young in first winter plumage: 
Similar to adult female but throat white down to chest. 
Comparisons. —At long range the female American and Red-breasted are difficult 
to distinguish, but in the American the head is slightly darker, the back grayish 
rather than brownish, while the white of the chin contrasts sharply with the brown 
of the head, instead of fading into it. At close range the single crest of the American 
may distinguish it from the double-crested Red-breasted. In the hand the bill 
characters determine the species. (See p. 148.) 
Range. —Breeds from southern Alaska, Great Slave Lake, Hudson Bay, Quebec, 
and Newfoundland south to Maine, Michigan, South Dakota, and central Oregon; 
in mountains south to northern New Mexico, north-central Arizona, and central 
California; winters from Aleutians, British Columbia, Idaho, northern Colorado, 
Great Lakes, New Brunswick, and Maine south to Gulf States, northern Mexico 
(Chihuahua), and northern Lower California. 
State Records. —One of the most southern American Merganser breeding 
records in the United States is that of Col. Goss, who on July 2, 1885, found a female 
and four little ones not over ten days old, at S,600 feet near the head of the Pecos 
River at latitude 35° 45' east of Santa Fe (1887, p. 344). 
The species was formerly rather common in migration. It was noted as common 
November 16, 1846, near Socorro (Abert), and there was a specimen in the United 
States National Museum taken by Capt. Pope November 17, 1855, at, Dona Ana. 
A specimen was taken November 20, 1903, at Tortugas Lake (Ford). 
Henry says that in his day, 1850-1856, the Merganser was not rare during 
the fall and winter, along the Rio Grande and the Rio Mimbres which would be 
near the southern limit of the winter range of the species. (Aldo Leopold reported, 
in 1919, that both American and Red-breasted Mergansers winter commonly on the 
Rio Grande, arriving about December 1. On the Carlsbad Bird Reserve the 
American was reported common on the lakes, January, 1915, and 500 were estimated 
December, 1916. On the Rio Grande Bird Reserve it was noted December 9, 
1916 (Willett). In the spring migrating flocks were seen at Lake Burford in May 
and June, 1918—a small flock, May 27; 14 pairs, May 30; 4 males and 2 females June 
3; 25 males, June 10; and a single male, June 15 (Wetmore).] W. W. Cooke. 
