Merganser

Merganser (Merqus), a genus of birds of the family Anatidae, having a long, rather slender, straight bill hooked at the tip and notched at the edges. The genus embraces six species, nearly all inhabitants of the seas and coasts, and distributed over the northern regions of the Old and New World, and in Brazil and the Auckland Islands. The Goosander (q.v.) is the largest and best-known British species. The Red-breasted Merganser (M. serrator) is resident in Scotland, where it breeds not only on the coasts of Ross, Sutherland, and the Hebrides, where it is abundant, but also on inland lochs and rivers. Its migrations extend southward to the lakes of Algeria and to Egypt. The Hooded Merganser (M. cucullatus), a smaller species, is a very rare visitor of Britain. It is found in North America, from the St Lawrence to Alaska, where it migrates as far south as Mexico, Cuba, Bermudas, and the Carolinas. The Nun or Smew (M. albellus) is a smaller species, passing the summer in the northern parts of the Old and New World, and ranging in winter as far south as India. Another species (M. australis) has as yet been found only in the Auckland Islands.