462 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



some Wild Duck, as we thought, with her brood making off 

 round a point which closed the view. On rowing to the 

 spot, the wily parent had still continued her retreat, and 

 we gave chace to the party, which with all the exertions 

 that could be made in rowing, still kept at a respectable 

 distance before us. We now perceived that these diminu- 

 tive possessors of their natal island were a female Goose- 

 ander or Dun-Diver, with a small but active little brood of 8 

 young ones. On pushing the chase for near half an hour, 

 the young, becoming somewhat fatigued, drew around 

 their natural protector who now and then bore them along 

 crowding on her back. At length, stealing nearly from our 

 sight, as the chase relaxed, the mother landed at a distance 

 on the gravelly shore, which being nearly of her own grey 

 color and that of her family, served for some time, as a 

 complete concealment. When we approached again, however, 

 they took to the water, and after a second attempt, in which 

 the young strove to escape by repeated divings, we suc- 

 ceeded in cutting off the retreat of one of the family, which 

 was at length taken from behind a flat boat under which it 

 had finally retreated to hide. We now examined the little 

 stranger, and found it to be a young Merganser of this 

 species, not bigger than the egg of a goose, and yet already 

 a most elegant epitome of its female parent, generally grey, 

 with the rufous head and neck, and the rudiments of a 

 growing crest. After suffering itself to be examined with 

 great calmness, and without any apparent fear, we restored it 

 to its more natural element, and, at the first effort, this little 

 diminutive of its species flew under the water like an arrow, 

 and coming out to the surface only at considerable distances, 

 we soon lost sight of it, making good its aquatic retreat in 

 quest of the parent. On inquiry, we learnt from the tavern 

 keeper, that, for several years past a nest or brood of. these 

 birds had annually been seen near this solitary and seclu- 



