Subfamily Mergina
Mergansers.
The Shelldrakes or Sawbills are fish-eating Ducks. They pursue and capture their prey under water, and their serrate bills seem especially adapted to this mode of feeding. The flesh of adult Sheldrakes is rank and fishy; but the Hooded Merganser is an excellent table Duck.
KEY TO SPECIES.
A. Bill under 1.75, wing 8.00 or under B. Bill over 1.75, wing over 8.00. a. Head and throat black. a1. Breast and belly white, tinged with salmon. 131. HOODED MERGANSER. 129. AM. MERGANSER (8 ad.). a2. Breast brownish, thickly streaked and spotted with black. 130. RED-BREASTED MERGANSER (8 ad.). b. Head and sides of the neck rich rufous-brown; distance from nostril to end of bill less than 1.50. 129. AM. MERGANSER (2 and im.). c. Crown grayish brown, more or less washed with cinnamon-rufous; sides of the neck cinnamon-rufous; distance from nostril to end of bill over 130. RED-BREASTED MERGANSER (9 and im.). 1.50 129. Merganser americanus (Cass.). AMERICAN MERGANSER; GOOSANDER; SHELLDRAKE. (See Fig. 16.) Ad. 8. - Whole head and upper neck glossy greenish black; hind neck, secondaries, lesser wing-coverts, and ends of greater ones white; back black, rump and tail ashy gray; breast and belly white, delicately tinged with salmon. Ad. and Im.-Chin and upper throat white; lower throat and entire top of the head rufous-brown; rest of upper parts and tail ashy gray; speculum * white; breast and belly white. L., 25.00; W., 10.50; Tar., 1.85; B. from N., 1.50.
Range.-North America generally; breeds from Minnesota and southern New Brunswick northward; winters from Kansas, Illinois, and Maine southward to South Carolina. Washington, rare W. V. Long Island, uncommon W. V., Nov. to Mch. Sing Sing, tolerably common T. V., Jan. 1 to Mch. 8. Cambridge, formerly common T. V., Oct. to Dec.
Nest, of leaves, grasses, and moss, lined with down, in a hole in a tree or cliff. Eggs, six to ten, creamy buff, 2.65 x 1.75. "This bird is fond of plunging beneath rushing currents for its food, and should it encounter a raft of floating rubbish or an ice-cake * A patch in the wing formed by the end half of the secondaries, which in Ducks are generally of a different color from the rest of the wing-feathers. MERGANSERS. it will readily pass underneath it. It swims so deeply as to afford the gunner but a small mark, and dives so quickly at the snap or flash of his gun that he stands but a small chance of killing it. "On being surprised the Goosander may rise directly out of the water, but more commonly pats the surface with his feet for some yards and then rises to windward. A whole flock thus rising from some foaming current affords a spirited scene. Once on the wing, the flight is straight, strong, and rapid" (Langille). 130. Merganser serrator (Linn.). RED-BREASTED MERGANSER;