CHAPTER XX 



THE GOOSANDER AND THE PIED SMEW 



That fine, handsome bird, the Buff-breasted 

 Goosander, which is also known as the Dun Diver, 

 Saw- Bill, and Jack-Saw, was found breeding in the 

 year 1840 beside some of the larger lakes of the 

 northern isles. It has also been found occasionally 

 by the sea, one locality being near Loch Maddy in 

 North Uist. This bird reaches us from other 

 countries in October, or early in November, and 

 returns northwards by the end of April. 



Saw- Bill is a good name for this Goosander, as a 

 fish, when once caught by it, has not the smallest 

 chance of escape, and might just as well be in a 

 pike's mouth. Sea-fowl follow their food-supplies, 

 and distance never wearies them, because the water 

 alone, that is to say, the set of the currents, carries 

 them hundreds of miles without their finding the 

 necessity for even once rising on the wing. Their 

 food teems on all sides of them, the surface of the 

 waters boiling up with fish which are just the right 

 size for their gullets. As one of my fisher friends 

 remarked, "The waters stink alive with fish o' one 



