So what do you do with the excess skin? I Mounted the little turd last night in a swimming possition. I was surprised at how easy the head inverted. It was much easier then a pheasant. What a tough little crap. The fat was like leather and believe me I didnt expect the spend near as long skinning and fleshing as I did.
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After the bird is already mounted you will probably just have to work it over several times with an adjusting needle and hope for the best.
What I do on hoodies is take a bit of extra time to completely reconstruct the neck, throat, and head/neck junction from the inside while the skin is still inverted. I then coat every bit of it, including the head, with a thin layer of latex caulking (no more than 1/8")
After the bird is mounted and secured on its base I focus on the head and neck, making sure the skin is centered and taxied correctly. The slack can be taken out by very carefully stacking the skin into a series of tiny ridges, like fine-textured corduroy, using an adjusting needle. It takes time, but the results are excellent if you have the patience to do it.
The caulking on the head will hold the crest in any position you choose, provided you have removed any fat and connective membrane from between the feather butts.
Mergansers can indeed be very tough and hard to flesh, but it is absolutely essential to do a very thorough job on them or you will never get control of the feathers.