MERGANSER MERGANSER ORIENTALIS 327 



My experience as to their progress on land does not at all agree 

 with what Hume writes. According to him : — 



On land one sees them resting on the water's edge, and when 

 disturhed they shuffle on their lireasts into tlie river. I do not think 

 that they can walk at all. Anyhow, I have always seen them just 

 half glide, half wriggle, breast foremost, and I think touching the 

 rocks, into the water." 



I found that birds wounded and fallen on land got along wonder- 

 fully fast. A male which I winged fell on a spit of sand, scuttled 

 across it into the water, and again took to the land on the far side. 

 I ran across after it, and had to run hard to catch it, and only just 

 succeeded in grabbing it as it was about to dive into the deep pool 

 beyond the sand-bank. 



When running on laud, they assume a very upright position, 

 almost like that of penguins, and they can get along at a very fair 

 pace, though they frequently fall and stumble about when hard- 

 pressed. 



Now Hume's idea may have been due to his having only seen the 

 birds on the very edge of the water, and even tame ducks tvhen close 

 to the water and on a shelving bank or stone often seem to wriggle 

 and glide into the water, their breasts practically touching the 

 ground en route. Mr. Finn in his articles on ducks, which appeared 

 in the ' Asian,' has shown that the Mergansers can walk all right. 

 He says : — 



"On shore they move about very little, and are clumsy walkers, 

 although they get about better than one would expect from the 

 published account of their gait." 



For the table the Goosander is quite worthless, and I advise no 

 one to try it as long as an;/ other food is obtainable ; the only 

 thing to be said in its favour is, that two courses, fish and game 

 (both nasty), may be combined in one. However, Hume says that : — 



" They are eatable if skinned, soaked several times, and then 

 stewed with onions and Worcester sauce." 



He remarks that it will form then an abundant meal for a hungry 

 man. Probably it would, or for several hungry men. 



