THE GOOSANDER. 



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their walk vacillating. They dwell habitually in the Ai-ctio regions of the two worlds, 

 and there it is that they most usually reproduce. They are seen only in winter in tem- 

 perate climes, where their arrival, in great numbers, is considered to prognosticate a 

 severe season. This opinion is, doubtless, well-founded, as they are driven from the 

 North by the density of the ice, which prevents them from obtaining their usual aliment 

 on the lakes and rivers of those climes. 



In spring they return northwards, but the places in which they nestle are doubtful. 

 It seems that it is in the rushes which border lakes and rivers, between rolled pebbles, in 

 bushes, or even hollow trees, that the female deposits her eggs. They vary from twelve 

 to fourteen in number. The Mergansers have but one moulting, but M. Temminck 

 states that the old males pass through that process in spring, while the females and the 

 young males moult in autumn. 



The native locality of the Goosander appears to be the northern regions of the con- 

 tinents of Europe and America, where, among large and unfrequented lakes, these bird 

 find an asylum and a breeding-place, as their summer haunts. From thence they migrate 

 southwards on the approach of the severities of winter, seldom appearing in our latitudes 

 unless the season indicates an exceedinglj' low temperature in the Arctic Circle ; at such 

 times they frequent the shores of Britain and its tnifrozen lakes, cither in pairs or in small 

 flocks of seven or eight. The extensive inland waters of Holland and Germany, however, 

 appear to be its favourite resort. '■ 



This species was shot at Fulham, near Loudon, in the severe winter of 1837. It 

 appears, from Dr. Eichard.son's statements, that they merely winter in Pennsylvania, and 

 migrate in summer to rear their young in the fur countries. The Prince of !Musignano 

 mentions it as rather scarce in Rome, as not common in the same season, in Phila- 

 delphia, and as occurring in Europe and America generally. It has been seen in Japan 

 by more than one naturalist. 



Acerbi, in his tra^•els, when on the bunks of a river near Kardis in I^apland, gives the 

 following fact : " The Mcnjii-'i iiwrtjanner, instead of building a small nest, like the ducks, 

 on the banks, or among the reeds and rushes, chooses to lay her eggs in the trunk of an old 

 tree in which time, or the hand of man, has made such an excavation as she can conveniently 

 enter. The person that waylays the bird for her eggs places against a fir or pine tree, 

 somewhere near the bank of the river, a'decaj'ed trunk, with a hole in its middle ; the 

 bird enters and lays her eggs in it ; presently the peasant comes, and takes awaj' the 

 eggs, leaving, however, one or two. 



"The bii-d returns, and, finding but a single egg, lays two or three more, which the 

 man purloins in the same manner ; the bird still returns, and, as if she had forgot the 

 eggs she had laid, proceeds once more to complete the number she intended. She is 

 defrauded of her eggs as before, and continues repeating the same process four or five 

 times, when the man, who has by this time gathered perhaps a score of eggs from the 

 same nest, suffers her to lay the last for the increase of her family. As soon as the eggs 

 are hatched, the mother takes the chicks gently in her bill, carries and \a.yB them down 

 at the foot of the tree, when she teaches them the wixy to the river, in which they 

 instantly swim with an astonishing facility." 



The food of the Goosander consists of small fish, amphibious animals, small crustacean.'! 

 and mollusks. Its nest is placed among rolled pebbles on the banks of waters, in bushes 

 or hollow trees, where it lays twelve or fourteen wliitish eggs, which are nearly equally 

 pointed at each end. Graves, who tasted one of these birds, states that its flesh is offen- 

 sive in the highest degree. 



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