150 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
York, Minnesota, Manitoba, and southern Washington; winters (mainly on coast) 
from southern British Columbia, northern United States, Great Lakes, Ontario, and 
Maine south to Florida, Gulf coast, and Lower California. 
State Records. —From its summer home in Canada the Red-breasted Mergan¬ 
ser occurs in migration and winter throughout most of the United States, but is 
rare in the Rocky Mountain region. A flock of eight were seen April 29, 1904, 
at Rinconada, at 5,600 feet (Surber), one of which was secured and is now in the 
collection of the Biological Survey. [On the Carlsbad Bird Reserve the species 
was noted February 18, 1914 (Wilder); it was said to be abundant, January, 1915, 
and 500 were noted December, 1916; also on the Rio Grande Bird Reserve (Ele¬ 
phant Butte), it was noted November 23-December 9, 1916 (Willett), and on the 
Rio Grande in the vicinity of Albuquerque it winters commonly, arriving about 
December 1 (Leopold).1—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Generally on the ground, near water, hidden by grass, bushes, rocks, 
or trees, made of leaves, grass, and moss, lined with mouse-gray breast down with 
paler centers and usually white feathers of female. Eggs: Generally 8 to 10, 
creamy or olive-buff, darker than those of Merganser. 
Food. —Largely small fish but also other aquatic animal life, as frogs, mollusks 
and crustaceans. 
General Habits. —Both the American and the Red-breasted 
Mergansers frequent rapid mountain streams and interior lakes and 
ponds, but the Red-breasted is more often seen on larger waters and 
may also be looked for on salt water. When fishing, these interesting 
ducks like the Sheldrakes have been seen hunting in companies. On 
Lake Ontario Mr. Eaton has often watched them, “a large flock some¬ 
times advancing with wide extended front, driving the fish before them 
and diving simultaneously so that which ever way their prey may dart 
there is a serrated beak and capacious gullet ready to receive them” 
(1909, p. 180). 
Unlike the other mergansers, the Red-breasted habitually nests on 
the ground, although sometimes in trees (Taverner). 
Additional Literature.—Bent, A. C., U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 126, 13-22, 
1923.— Strong, R. M., Auk, XXIX, 479-488, 1912.— Townsend, C. W., Auk, 
XXVIII, 341-345, 1911 (courtship). 
VULTURES, HAWKS, AND EAGLES: Order Falconiformes 
Plate 9 
“In the higher types the whole structure betokens strength, activity, 
and ferocity, carnivorous propensities and predacious nature. Most of 
the smaller or weaker species feed much upon insects; others more 
particularly upon reptiles and fish; others upon carrion; but the majority 
prey upon other birds, and small mammals, captured in open warfare. 
To this end the claws no less than the [hooked] beak are especially 
adapted by their development in the 1 talons, 7 as a rule of great size, 
strength, and acuteness” (Coues). The nostrils are generally set in a 
cere, a naked skin or membrane, often brightly colored. “In the case 
