Head, throat and upper neck, iridescent black; conspicuous black crest broadly banded with white over head from eye to eye; back black, ashy on tail; wings black with a very large white patch; collar and entire under parts, white. Female: Smaller; brownish, lighter below with no crest and only a white patch on cheeks and a small white wing patch. [Hooded Merganser.]
134. OLD-SQUAW. 21 in.
(Harelda hiemalis. 154.)
Winter Plumage: Back, long tail-feathers and breast with conspicuous patch on sides of neck, black; throat and upper breast, top of head, neck and belly, white; cheeks grayish-brown; wings black and gray; bill crossed by yellowish band. Female: Dark brown, lighter on head, grayish on tail; throat, breast and region about the eye, gray-white; below white, brown on lower part of throat; no long tail-feathers; smaller than male. Summer Plumage: Head and neck, dusky black; grayish-white on sides of head, and female shows more brown. [Pintail.]
135. CANADA GOOSE. 40 in.
(Branta canadensis. 172.)
Head and neck, black with white throat-patch extending up to and just behind eye; brownish-gray marked with lighter, darkest on back; rump and tail, black above and white below; fly after a leader in harrow-shaped ranks, often high up, crying, “honk, honk, honk.”
136. AMERICAN BITTERN. 30 in.
(Botaurus lentiginosus. 190.)
Streaky tawny- and dark-brown; tawny-yellowish below, mixed with white and streaked with dark brown; conspicuous black streak on sides of neck; short brown tail; breast feathers loose and baggy; yellow eye; call, loud resounding squawk or booming notes which have given it the common name of “stake-driver.”