Dr. Lath am \t EJay on the Tracheae or Windpipes of Birds. 1*3 



is figured, among others, in the Berlin Tranfadions, by Dr. Bloch, as 

 above referred to in the Synonyms. 



From the icarcity of the Merganfer tribe in this kingdom, fuffi- 

 cient opportunities rarely occur to enable us to afcertain many points 

 about them as might be wifhed for. I am, however, now inclined 

 to believe, as hinted in another place*, that the Goofander and Dun 

 Diver form but one fpecies, and that the former is the male bird. 

 What has, I believe, led us hitherto to fuppofe otherwife, is the cuf- 

 torn of this fpecies of the two fexes feparating after breeding time ; 

 the old males affociating together in one flock, and the females, with 

 the young birds without difcrimination, forming a feparate company ; 

 fufficiently accounting for the flocks of thefe latter being moft nu- 

 merous: from this caufe, and the plumage of thfmale being for a 

 certain feafon not unlike that of the female, and efpecially direc- 

 tion proving that many males are always among them, the won- 

 der ceafes that the birds in queflion fhould have been fet down by- 

 many writers for different fpecies. 



Jn Germany thefe birds are fufficiently plentiful, and the ornitholo- 

 gifts of that country have written much concerning them ; the refult 

 of which is,thattheM?rg77«/£r is confidered by them as the male, and 

 the Dun Diver the female, and the Caflor of Linnseus not at all dis- 

 tinct, nor otherwife than the young bird. It would take up too 

 much room here, in this EfTay already fufficiently long, to detail 

 what Dr. Pallas f, Profeflbr Beckmarin %, and Dr. Otto§, have faid 

 on this fubjecl: in the Berlin 'Tranfaclions ; but I ihould not do thefe 

 Gentlemen juftice, did I not recommend the perufal of their various 

 DifTertations, which may be read with equal pleafure and advan- 

 tage. 



* Gen. Syn. vi. p. 423. f Befch. der Berl. Nat. Fr. ii. p. 551. 



% Befch. der Berl. Nat. Fr. i. p. 170. $ Id. iii. p. 456. 



r 2 xxvif. 



