days old, have the elongated form o f the adult, and a silken kind o f plumage well adapted to resist wet.
The colouring o f their bodies is not wilhout beauty. When feathers take the place of the infantine costume,
the birds grow so rapidly that in four or live weeks their full size will be attained. Both males and females
are now alike; and the style o f dress assumed is carried by the former until the second year, when it
suddenly changes to the finer dress.
So graphically has Mr. Selby described the habits o f this bird, that I do not hesitate to give the following
extract from his 'Illustrations o f British Birds;' to which I shall add a copy o f a letter received from
Jeffery Whitehead, Esq., o f Devonshire Villa, Muswell Hill, furnishing some particulars o f .the colouring of
the bird in the month o f January, when it appears to be in its most beautiful state o f piumage.
“ Upon the Northumbrian and other*oasts o f the north o f England,” says Mr. Selby, “ the species is a
regular winter visitant, but always more abundantly in severe than in mild seasons. It haunts the bays and
inlets where small streams discharge themselves, as well as the estuaries o f rivers, but seldom advances far
beyond the influence of the tide. In the Highlands and Wes o f Scotland these birds are found at all seasons
of the year, making the freshwater lakes of the interior their residence during the summer, and in winter
should they become frozen, resorting to the salt-water inlets. They breed upim the margins o f the lakes, or
m preference upon the islets with which many o f them are diversified. Upon Loch Awe, in the Western
Islands, they are common; and their nests have been repeatedly found by Sir William Jardine and myself
upon the several islands that beautify its western, extremity., The nest is alwhyssit'uated a few ydrds beyond
the highest waterline, frequently beside a large , stone covered with brambles and hoarse herbage, or under
the shelter o f some thick-bush., It is'composed of'dried gntss, small foots, &c;>- .intermixed with feathers
and a .quantity o f down o f the bird, which appears ,to be added to as incubation advances. The eggs are from
seven to eleven in number, o f * Colour ¡intermediate between cream-yellow and wood-brown, and in size and
shape like those o f the Common Duck. „ The .bird sits remarkably closey aiid will sometimes allow itself to be
almost trodden Upon before it wffl.qiA the nest. The Merganser is an excellent-divef, remaining for a long
time submerged, during which it makes'rapid-progress; In this way it frequently escapes when woiinded
merely raising its bill above water to take breath and again dipping down, without causing any perceptible
disturbance of the surface/'’ . j >•-- i ( ^ .. r
“ The male Merganser,-' says' Mr. Whitehead, ■'• which I have requested Mr. Leadbeater to submit to your
inspection, was shot by myself on Loch Fleet (a sali-water loch) on the east coast o f Sutherlandshire on the
1st of , January, Much o f its beauty has faded already; for when I first .handled it I was much struck by the
exquisite pink colour o f the lower part o f the breast and belly.- I khow not what to compare it to ■ it was
more delicate than; that-Of ■ the,Roseate. Tern as figured in your.' Birds ofEurope: - it vanished within two or
three hours after death.” “
The adult male has the head and upper p art of the neck, dark shining green, and the occipital crest still
darker, approaching to b lack ; neck white, with the exception o f a narrow line from the occiput to the back
which as also the shoulders, are black; shorter .scapularies white, the longer ones black; on each side
immediately, in fro n t o f the ,wing' a conspicuous tuft o f feathers o f a pure’ white, broadly margined with' rich
velvet black ;, lesser,wmg-coverts w h ite ; greater coverts and secondaries black a t the base, their duter halves
being white, and with the lesser coverts forming three conspicuous white bands on the wing; primaries
brownish black; tertiar.es white, edged with black; lower p art o f the back and upper tail-coverts, sides and
flanks m m m m | | g g j With black; tail brownish'ash-colour;, lower p a rt of the neck pale reddish
brown, streaked and varied with black; breast and under surface very delicate pinkish salmon-colour; under
tail-coverts white; .bill bright red, the culmen dark brown, and the nail somewhat lig h ter; irides red - legs
and toes reddish orange; membranes dark reddish brown.
The female has the head, occipital crest; and back o f the neck dark brown; back, scapularies and
lesser wingtooverts umber brown; greater coverts and secondaries brownish black, terminated with white
forming two white bands; primaries and tertiaries dark or brownish black; neck mingled reddish and pale
brown; under surface.pale buff; upper tail-coverts and tail ash, brown; sides o f the hill and nostrils fleshy
red; culmen reddish black; indes red;,legs and toes very fine reddish orange; the membranes olive-brown
abo?eeth°U”g blrds',7 he\ a f e " ' * ‘yis ° Id' 1 B “ d a" «1* H | surface light chocolate-brown;
above the eye a small patch, and below ,t a'stripe o f white; below this and oh each side o f the neck is a
wash o f rusty red;, all the tmder surface, the shoulders,.and the extremity o f the abbreviated wings and three
laige spots on the sides, within the dark tint o f the upper surface, white; bill and legs pale fleshy red
The Plate represents a male, a female, and five, young birds about the sjze o f life