212 MERGANSER CASTOR. 



eleven inclies ; the coeca an inch and three-fourths. The 

 trachea is much flattened, and of nearly equal width through- 

 out, its average hreadth being nearly four-twelfths, but to- 

 ward the end only three-twelfths ; its rings uniform, slender, 

 an hundred and forty-five in number. At the lower end five 

 rings are united, and the large ring thus formed dilates and 

 bifurcates below, forming two limbs, of which the right is 

 longer. The bronchi, which come off at the distance of four- 

 twelfths from each other, are of moderate size, and composed 

 of about twenty half-rings. 



Length to end of tail 24 inches ; extent of wings 33 ; 

 wing from flexure 10|^ ; tail 4| ; bill along the ridge ^r^ ; 

 tarsus l^V j middle toe ^-j^^, its claAv ^. 



VARiATioxs.^Considerable diflerences as to size are ob- 

 served, the longest males measuring twenty-seven inches, the 

 shortest twenty-four. The females are always smaller than 

 the males, but young males, being similar in plumage to the 

 females, are apt to be mistaken for them. Adult males difier 

 very little in the colours of the plumage, and this is equally 

 the case with adult females. The bill of the male is repre- 

 sented by some as entirely red, but I have never seen one in 

 which it was not partially black or dusky. 



Habits. — The Goosander, or Buff'-breasted Merganser, 

 which is widely dispersed in summer over the northern regions 

 of both continents, is at that season very seldom met w ith in 

 Britain, and that only in the remotest parts and islands of 

 Scotland. The number of individuals there seen is very much 

 inferior to that of the Red-breasted Mergansers. In the 

 outer Hebrides, where I resided several years, although I have 

 several times met with them on the lakes in summer, I never 

 found a nest ; but Mr. John MacGillivray, who visited these 

 islands in the summer of 1840, was more fortunate, or more 

 observant, for he found it pretty common, breeding by the 

 larger lakes, and occasionally by the sea, as near Loch 

 Maddy, in North Uist. In Orkney, on the other hand, it is 

 only a winter visitant, leaving very early in spring. In win- 

 ter it is met with sparingly in all parts of Scotland, as well 



