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MERIAN, MATTHEW (1593–1650), Swiss engraver, was born in Basel, on the 25th of September 1593. The family came originally from near Delemont, but in his grandfather's time settled in Basel, where in 1553 it obtained the burghershj,
of the city. As Matthew early showed signs of artistic tastes, he was placed (1609) under the care of Dietrich Meyer, a painter and engraver of Zurich (1572–1658). He went' on to Nancy in 1613, where he already displayed considerable talents as an engraver on copper. After studying in Paris, Stuttgart (1616) and the Low Countries, he came to Frankfort, where in 1618 he married the eldest daughter of J. T. de Bry, who was a publisher and bookseller as well as an engraver. Merian worked for some time with his father-in-law in Oppenheim, but then returned to Basel, whence he came back (1624) to Frankfort after Bry's death (1623), in order to take over his business;
M. cucullatus, the hooded merganser of North America, is in size intermediate between M. albellus and M. serrator; the male is easily recognizable by his broad semicircular crest, bearing a fanshaped patch of white, and his elongated subscapulars of white edged with black. The conformation of the trachea in the male of M. merganser, M. serrator and M. cucullatus is very like that of the ducks of the genus Clangula, but M. albellus has a less exaggerated development more resembling that of the ordinary Fuligula.' From the southern hemisphere two species of Mergus have been described, M. octosetaceus or brasilianus, L. P. Vieillot (N. Diet. d'Hist. naturelle, ed. 2, vol. xiv. p. 222; Gal. des oiseaux, torn. ii. p. 209, pl. 283), inhabiting South America, of which but few specimens have been obtained, having some general resemblance to M. serrator, but much more darkly coloured, and M. australis, Hombron and Jacquemont (Ann. sc. nat. zoologie, ser. 2, vol. xvi. p. 320; Voy. au Pol Sud, oiseaux, pl. 31, fig. 2), known only by the unique example in the Paris Museum procured by the French Antarctic expedition in the Auckland Islands.
Often associated with the mergansers is the genus Merganetta, the so-called torrent-ducks of South America, of which six species have been described; but they possess spiny tails and have their wings armed with a spur. These with Hymenolaemus Malacorhynchus, the blue duck of New Zealand, and Salvadorina waigiuensis of Waigiou are placed in the sub-family Merganettinae.	(A. N.)