There were ducks and gray geese, surf-scoters and guillemots, loons and pin-tail ducks and mergansers and grebes and oyster-catchers and sea-grouse.

CHAPTER XXX DUCKS AND DRAKES Wood DuckBlack DuckMallardPintailGreen-winged TealBlue-winged TealRedheadOld SquawHooded Merganser.

[Illustration: Hooded Merganser.]

They are all called Mergansers, and we have in this country four different species.

" The Hooded Merganser Length sixteen and a half to eighteen inches.

A Citizen of North America, very handsome and stylish when he is in full dress; but he is a Fishing Duck, and therefore not very good to eat, though not as rank as other Mergansers.

Like the Wood Duck, but unlike nearly all other members of the Duck tribe, this Merganser builds his downy nest in a hollow tree or stump.

Hooded Merganser Lophod'ytes cucul'a'tus.