180 BIEDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



tributaries, and on them, and at Foulridge and the other 

 reservoirs, man}' specimens, usually females or immature 

 males, have fallen to the gun. It sometimes occurs in 

 small flocks, and on the 22nd January, 1881, two 

 females were shot on the Eibble, near Clitheroe, out of 

 nine birds which, for above a week, had frequented the 

 locality. It must, however, be considered as a winter 

 visitor in only small numbers, and, although Mr. T, 

 Jackson says he sees it on the Lune almost every 

 season, it rarely visits the other portions of the coast. 

 The female Goosander is probably the bird which Dr. 

 Leigh (" Nat. Hist. Lane, &c.," 1700) caHsthe Sparling- 

 fisher, and which he says " is about the bigness of a 

 Duck, and by a wonderful activity in diving catches its 

 prey, and yields a very pleasant diversion when pursued 

 by water - dogs." Willughby (" Ornithology," Eay, 

 1678) gives Dun Diver and Sparlin-fowl as synonyms 

 for the female Goosander, and Sparling is stated by 

 Pennant to be a name used for the smelt in Wales and 

 the north of England, a fish which, he says, " inhabits 

 the seas that wash these islands the whole year." Mr. 

 T. Altham, however, tells me that on Morecambe Bay 

 he has heard the Red-throated Diver called Sperlin- 

 hunter. 



EED-BEEASTED MERGANSER. 



Mergus serrator, Linnseus. 



The late Dr. Skaife, in recording {Mart. Not. Hist., 

 1838) the capture of a " splendid male " near South- 

 port on February 10th, 1838, says, " so rare is this bird 

 in these parts that none of the bird-stuffers, nor the 



