almost be said to
sing; but he is not choice or dainty in his food, and the flesh is too
rank for House People to eat. He has many absurd names besides "Old
Squaw."

The Hooded Merganser

Length sixteen and a half to eighteen inches.

Male: a beautiful black and white crest rising up high in a rounded
form, but very thin from side to side, like a hood ironed flat. Head,
neck, and back black; belly and breast white; sides cinnamon-brown with
fine black bars; a white mirror with black edges on the wing. Bill
black, round like a lead-pencil, with a hook at the end, and strong
saw-like teeth along the sides; eyes yellow.

Female: without any such crest as her mate has, and brown where he is
black.

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.

CHAPTER XXXI

GULLS AND TERNS AT HOME

[Illustration: Herring Gull.]

Gull Island was only a great sand heap, anchored by rocks and covered
with coarse grass; but the children had hardly taken a few steps along
the beach when they began to exclaim at the number of strange birds.
Some were flying, others walking about on the sand, where there were
many tufts of grass and mats of seaweeds that looked as if they had been
used for nests. Dodo nearly stepped upon a couple of greenish,
dark-spotted eggs, that were nearly as large as a Hen's. "Are the Gulls
still nesting, Uncle Roy? And what are those dark streaky birds over
there?"

"These are left-over eggs that did not hatch, for nesting is over in
July at latest, and the dark birds are young Gulls in their first
plumage. They are brownish gray, streaked and spotted as you see, while
the old birds are snow-white with pearl-gray backs, and black and white
wing-markings in the summer, though their winter dress is not quite so
pure, being streaked with gray on the neck."

"Then the very dark Gulls I have seen off our beach in winter are the
young ones?" said Rap; "I never knew that before. I don't believe many
people remember how birds change their colors, and a great many never
heard about it at all, I guess."

"Gulls walk very nicely," said Nat. "Much better than Ducks; and how
they bob up and down like little boats when they float!"

"Wak