GOOSANDER. 625 



MERGUS MERGANSER. 



GOOSANDER. 



(Plate 67.) 



Merranser inerofanser, I r, • ^ • ^oi .^r^ ^t^^^s 



,^ " ^ ' > Bnss. Orn. vi. pp. 231, 25o (17G0). 



Merganser cmereus, i 



Mergus merganser, Linn. Si/st. Nat. i. p. 20S (17GG) ; et auctorum plurimorum— 



Temniinck, Naiunann, Dresser, Saunders, &c. 



Mergus castor, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 209 (1766). 



Mergus gulo, Scop. Ann. I. Hist. Nat. p. 69 (1768). 



Mergus rubricapillus, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 545 (1788). 



Merganser raii, ] -r toj^^t.^ n ^. 



TV1- n /o \ I Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. S,-c. Brit. 31us. p. 36 (1816). 



Merganser gulo (<>eo/j.), \ * y-L^j^^j. 



Merganser castor {Linn.), Bonap. Cojnp. List B. Eur. Sj- N. Amer. p. 59 (1838). 

 Mergus orientalis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1845, p. 1. 

 Mergus sq^uamatus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 184. 



The Goosander is a tolerably common winter visitor to the British 

 Islands, being fonnd in most snitable localities both on the coast as well 

 as inland. It appears to be rarer in Ireland ; but Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey 

 states that in the severe January of 1881 this bird was shot in every part 

 of Ireland, and was more plentiful than had ever been known before. In 

 the western districts of Scotland it is very abundant, even more so than 

 the Red-breasted Merganser, and frequents all the islands of that wild 

 coast. It appears more abundantly off the English coasts in severe seasons 

 than in mild ones, but is always rarer in the southern districts. An occa- 

 sional pair remain and breed in the Highlands. Harvie-Brown has had the 

 eggs and down sent to him from North Perthshire, obtained in a hollow 

 tree ; and other evidence not quite so conclusive is to be found in Booth's 

 ' Rough Notes ' and elsewhere. 



The Goosander is a circumpolar bird ; but American examples appear to 

 have become slightly differentiated, and are regarded by Baird, Brewer, and 

 Ridgway as subspecifically distinct from those of the Old World under the 

 name of Mergus merganser americanus*. The difference is very slio-ht and 

 appears to be confined to the existence in the American form of a narrow 

 black bar across the greater Aving-co verts. In both forms the basal portion 

 of these feathers is black ; but in the Old- World form the median win"-- 



* The synonymy of the American form is as follows : — 



Mergus americanus, Cass. Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1853, p. 187, 



Mergus castor, a. americanus, Cass., Bonap. Compt. Bend, xliii, p. 652 (1856) 



Mergus merganser americanus, Cass., Ridgw. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. iii. p. 205 (1880) 



