CHAPTER LXXV 



THE GOOSANDER, MERGANSER, AND SMEW 



When the waters are clear and cold, when the reeds are 

 yellow and their tassels frayed, when the cold breath of 

 winter is upon the face of the land, and the wild-fowl come 

 with melancholy cries from their frozen homes, a few goosan- 

 ders arrive, and several mergansers, in flocks of seven or 

 eight, for the merganser is the commoner bird in the 

 Broadland. 



The goosander, indeed, rarely appears except in the depth 

 of winter, and then he is generally alone, and a shy bird to 

 boot, diving on the least alarm, for he is an expert diver and 

 fish-eater. 



The merganser (called locally the " sawyer ") is, however, 

 more sociable, though a voracious fish-eater, and as cunning 

 as clever. But these birds are comparatively rare visitors, 

 and rarely seen except by professional gunners, and those 

 real lovers of the Broads who woo their mistress in the 

 depth of winter, and even they are only favoured with 

 glimpses, as the birds dive and rise again in alarm. 



The smew I have never seen, for he is perhaps the rarest 

 of the three ; but one, two, and three have been killed in the 

 Broadland during recent years. One gunner I know shot 

 one four years ago, and another gunner killed one two years 

 ago, and upon another occasion during the same winter 

 he wounded two more out of a party of seven. But the 

 wounded birds escaped to some low ronds, and could not 

 be found at all, though diligent search was made by the 

 sharp-eyed punter. 



