The sexes in Swans and Geese are usually alike, though exceptions occur, as in Chloephaga; in Ducks the male is generally much the finer bird, and has peculiar decorations, such as the elongated scapulars and rectrices of Harelda and Dafila; the sickle-shaped secondaries of Eunetta, Heniconetta, Arctonetta, and Somateria; the stiff feathers on the face in the last three and Camptolaemus; the curly tail of Anas boscas; the crest, ruff, and sail of Aex galericulata; or the crests of many Fuligulinae and Merginae. Some females have similar but less striking adornments. Among the many instances of fine coloration may be mentioned the Red-breasted and Emperor Geese, the Harlequin, Mandarin, Pink-headed and Shoveller Ducks, the Sheld-Drake (Fig. 34), and the Goosander; while most Swans are pure white. The blue, green, or white speculum–or wing-bar–in various Ducks adds greatly to their appearance. The young are comparatively dull, the nestlings being thickly covered with yellowish down, furnished with barbs and barbules; the colour is, however, whitish or grey in Swans, and occasionally brown, blackish, or greenish elsewhere.
Sub-fam. 1. Merginae.–The commonest British species is M. serrator, the Red-breasted Merganser, which breeds plentifully in the Scotch Highlands and Ireland, and ranges over the northern parts of the globe, extending in winter from the Mediterranean to China, Japan, and the Bermudas. The head is glossy green-black with a long hairy crest, the neck is white with a black nuchal line, the upper parts are chiefly black, the large white wing-patch is crossed by two black bars, while white feathers edged with black adorn the sides of the breast, which is rufous with black streaks, and becomes reddish-white towards the abdomen. The female is brown, with reddish head and nearly white under surface. The bill and feet are red in this species and the next. M. merganser, the Goosander, nests sparingly in North Scotland, and has a similar range to the above abroad, though less abundant; it has a green-black head with little crest, a black back, almost white wings, and pinkish-white lower neck and under parts. The female has a blue-grey back, and lacks the wing-bars of the hen Merganser. The American species, with a black alar band, is separated as M. americanus, and the Central Asiatic form as M. comatus; M. australis, of the Auckland Islands, has a brown head and neck with long crest, a dark grey body with white bands below, a white speculum, and red-brown bill and feet; M. brasilianus, of Brazil, is black above with two bars on the white speculum, and white below barred with black, the bill and feet being greenish-black. The female has the crown and long occipital feathers brown. M. albellus, the Smew, ranging from Lapland eastward to Bering Island, but not to North America, and found in winter from Britain and the Mediterranean to North India, China, and Japan, is mainly white, with blackish cheeks, occiput, back, remiges, rectrices, and two crescentic bands on each side of the breast, the bill and feet being lead-coloured. The female has a red-brown head and nape, brownish-grey upper parts, and a smaller crest than the male. Lophodytes cucullatus, the Hooded Merganser of North America, which has strayed to Greenland and Britain, has black upper and white under parts; the dense compressed crest has the posterior part white in the middle, the white speculum shows a pair of black bars, two black crescents mark each side of the breast, the long inner secondaries are black and white, the bill is black, the feet are brown. The female has a red-brown crest, brown chest, and upper surface.
The members of this Sub-family are shy and wary sea-birds, seldom found on fresh water except during the breeding season; they fly well, walk clumsily, and dive admirably, swimming low in the water. The cry is a plaintive whistle or loud harsh note; the food consists of little but fish. The Red-breasted Merganser breeds in holes in banks, or among grass and heather, laying up to ten brownish-green eggs; the Goosander deposits from eight to thirteen, of a fine creamy colour, in similar places, or in hollow trees; the Smew and the Hooded Merganser prefer the latter, and lay some eight creamy or ivory-white eggs respectively.
Sub-fam. 2. Merganettinae.–Salvadorina waigiuensis of Waigiou has the head and neck blackish-brown with paler edges to the feathers, a white chin, black upper parts barred with white, and buffish-white under parts with brown abdominal spots; the sides are barred with black, and the black and green speculum is bounded by two white bands. The bill and feet are yellowish-brown. Hymenolaemus malacorhynchus, the Blue Duck of New Zealand, is lead-blue, tinged with olive on the head and spotted with chestnut on the breast, the outer secondaries shewing a little white and the inner black. The whitish bill has the dependent membrane (p. [111]) black, the feet are brown. This peculiar and tame torrent-duck is rarely seen on the sea, though it can fly from one gorge to another; it swims and climbs the boulders with ease, has a whirring note, and feeds chiefly on insect-larvae. It deposits five creamy eggs in holes or under tussocks of grass. Merganetta armata, of Chili, is black above with white edges to the feathers, and rufous with black streaks below; the head and neck are white, with black crown, vertical eye-stripe, throat, chest, and streaks down the back and sides of the neck; the bronzy-green speculum has a white band on each side, the bill is yellow, the feet are reddish. M. frenata, of Chili, is very similar; M. turneri, of South Peru, has a white throat and rufous edges to the feathers of the back; M. leucogenys, of Peru, has a whitish throat and breast; while M. garleppi, of Bolivia and Tucuman, and M. columbiana, of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela, differ but little from the last-named. The females are grey and black above and uniform cinnamon below. These curious Ducks are restricted to the torrents of the Andes, where they are found in pairs, plunging in the cascades, diving below the boulders, or stemming the impetuous current with equal facility.
Fig. 33.–Musk Duck. Biziura lobata. × ⅐. (From Nature).
Sub-fam. 3. Erismaturinae.–Biziura lobata, of Tasmania and Australia–except the north–is brown with buff mottlings, the bill and its leathery appendage being greenish-black and the feet dusky. The smaller female has less chin-lobe. This species frequents the sea as well as lakes, roosts in trees, and when diving remains long submerged; the food consists of mussels, leeches, and aquatic worms; the note resembles the dropping of water. The nest, placed on a stump or in a bank, contains two olive eggs; the musky smell of the sitting female having suggested the name of Musk Duck.
Erismatura contains seven "Lake Ducks," inhabitants of fresh-water lagoons, which dive like Grebes, and remain with only the bill exposed; they are often tame, and when disturbed splash along the surface like a Moor-hen, to settle again almost immediately; in swimming the spiny tail is carried erect, suggesting a comparison to a "two-peaked saddle." The note is said to be a curious inward sound; the food is of fish, molluscs, and insects; while the nest, built in rushy places, contains up to ten coarse-grained white eggs.[[113]] E. leucocephala, ranging from the Mediterranean to Southern Siberia, and in winter to North-West India or, exceptionally, to Holland, is rufous-brown with black vermiculations and bars, black crown and neck-ring; the rest of the head and neck being white, the bill blue, the feet dusky. E. jamaicensis, of Central and temperate North America, E. ferruginea, of Bolivia and Peru, E. aequatorialis, of Ecuador, E. maccoa, of South and East Africa, E. vittata, of southern South America, and E. australis, of South and West Australia and Tasmania, are brown with greyer belly mottled with dusky; the head and neck being black, except for the white cheeks and chin in the first-named and the chin only in the second and third. E. aequatorialis has white instead of rufous under tail-coverts; E. maccoa has white axillaries as opposed to grey in E. vittata; E. australis is much deeper chestnut. The females are decidedly duller. E. (Nomonyx) dominicus, of Central, Southern, and, accidentally, Eastern North America, has the feathers of the back black in the middle and a white speculum. Thalassiornis leuconota, of South and East Africa with Madagascar, is variegated with black and ochreous yellow, the rump being white, the wings, tail, and feet brownish, the bill blue-grey. It dives much, flies little, and lays about four greenish eggs.
Sub-fam. 4. Fuligulinae.–Somateria mollissima, the Eider Duck, breeds commonly in Northern Britain, and thence to the Taimyr Peninsula eastwards and the Coppermine River westwards, birds from North-East America being separated as S. dresseri; while S. v-nigrum, differing in its black V-shaped throat mark, occupies North-East Asia and North-West America. In winter the first-named strays as far as South Europe and the United States; the second has occurred in Holland. The male Eider has white upper parts and buff chest, black lower back, abdomen, and crown, the last showing a white streak; the wing- and tail-quills are brown, the stiff nape-feathers green, while the plumage extends in a peak on the culmen. The female is brown, with blackish bands or stripes and two white alar bars. The bill and feet are olive-green. S. spectabilis, the King-Eider of the Northern Arctic Regions, rarely wandering in winter to Britain, France, New Jersey, and California, has the head blue-grey with green and white cheeks, and a black chevron on the throat; the remaining portions being black except for the buff breast, white neck, upper back, lesser wing-coverts, and a patch on each side of the rump. The feet and the bill, with its vertical black-edged disc at the base, are orange. The female is redder than in the Eider, with a more feathered culmen. These species are essentially maritime, only coming to shore to breed; they are semi-gregarious, and form a nest of grass and rubbish, a quantity of down underlying the five to eight oily-green eggs. Eider-down is chiefly procured from Iceland, Greenland, and protected islands in Norway. The flight is low and heavy, the food consists of mussels, starfish, and other sea creatures. Arctonetta fischeri, the Spectacled Eider of Alaska, is chiefly white, with dark grey rump and under parts; the head being varied with green and decorated with pendent bristly plumes on the occiput, stiff frontal and loral feathers, and a satin-like quadrangular patch outlined with black on each side. The tail- and wing-quills are brown, except the falcate inner secondaries; the feet are brownish, the bill is orange in the male. The female is fulvous and black with bluish beak. Heniconetta stelleri breeds on the Arctic shores mainly between the Taimyr Peninsula and Alaska, and has strayed to Britain and even France. The head, falcate scapulars, and inner secondaries are white with blue-black outer webs to the two latter, the rest of the wing-quills and tail brown; the back, throat, neck, and a spot on each side of the breast purplish-black; the lores and short occipital tuft green, the lower parts mostly tawny. The female is brown with darker markings, and duller wing-bar. Camptolaemus labradorius, the extinct "Pied Duck" of the North Atlantic coast of America, was black, with white head, neck, chest, scapulars, and most of the wings except the primaries; it had a black stripe down the crown and stiff cheek-feathers. The brownish female shewed a white speculum.
Oedemia nigra, the Scoter or Black Duck, which nests in North Scotland, ranges over Northern Europe and Asia to the Taimyr Peninsula, sometimes reaching the Azores and the Mediterranean in winter. It is black, with a yellow nasal patch and a swollen base to the culmen, the female being dark brown with greyish face and throat, and no protuberance or yellow mark. Oe. americana of North-East Asia and North America, migrating to Japan, California, and New Jersey, has the knob yellow with red sides, while the female is grey-brown. Oe. fusca, the Velvet Scoter, extends from Scandinavia to West Siberia, and occurs exceptionally in Greenland, visiting us in winter, though rarely reaching Spain and the Adriatic; it is black with a white speculum and mark under each eye, the bill being orange with black posterior swelling and lateral line, and the feet dull crimson-red. The brownish female has the white speculum, but a brown bill. The very similar Oe. deglandi, of North-East America, has the base of the maxilla entirely feathered, as has the still blacker Oe. carbo, of North-East Asia. Oe. perspicillata, the Surf-Scoter, accidental in Britain and North-West Europe, inhabits the far north of America and the Asiatic coasts of Bering Straits, wintering down to Jamaica and California. The black plumage is relieved by white patches on the crown and nape; there is a black mark on each side of the crimson, scarlet, and orange bill, the feet are crimson, orange, and black. The brown female has yellowish-orange feet. Scoters are gregarious birds, usually found some way from land except when breeding; the flight is strong; the note guttural, but softer in spring; the food consists of fish, molluscs, and crustaceans. They nest near fresh-water lakes and pools, among heather or grass, and lay from five to eight yellowish-white eggs.