GOOSANDER. 107 
as thirty have been successively laid: their colour a uniform 
buff white or cream yellow. 
The female has been seen to carry her young on her back, 
in the same way as described of the Swan. She leads them 
to the water as soon as they are hatched, or carries them 
thither in her bill if the nest has been built in the hollow 
of a tree, and at once commences their education. 
The males appear to leave the females when the latter 
have begun to sit, and do not rejoin them till the summer 
is over: while absent they are only accompanied by one or 
two females, if any. 
Male; weight, about four pounds; length, two feet two 
inehes and a half to two feet three or four inches. The bill, 
which is long and rather slender, serrated on the sides, and 
hooked at the end, is bright red, the upper mandible edged 
with black, the tooth horn-colour; iris, carmine red. Crest, 
towards the back of the head, the feathers on the crown 
being long and loose, and neck on the upper part, behind, 
and nape, black, glossed with green; sides of the head, chin, 
and throat, dull black. When this bird is alive the breast 
on the upper part is tinged with a beautiful roseate hue; 
when this fadés the colour remains of a rather pale, though 
decided buff salmon-colour; the remainder of the breast is 
white, but the sides on the extreme lower part are waved 
with grey and white. Back on the upper part, fine glossy 
black, on the lower part brownish grey. 
The wings in breadth reach to three feet two inches; the 
upper border of the wing is black; greater wing coverts, 
grey, with some white, and tipped with rich buff orange; 
lesser wing coverts, white; primaries, dusky velvet black, 
with ash-colour on the inner webs of some of the inside 
ones; secondaries, white, bordered narrowly with greenish 
black on the outer webs; tertiaries, also white, bordered 
narrowly with dusky velvet black. ‘The tail is dark bluish 
grey, the shafts dusky: it consists of eighteen feathers; 
upper tail coverts, brownish grey. The legs, which are 
placed far back, and the toes, rich orange; webs, darker 
orange red. 
The female is not so large as the male. Bill, dull purple 
red on the sides, the remainder of both mandibles _ black, 
the edges finely serrated; iris, purple red. The crest is long 
and pendant. Head, crown, and neck on the upper part, 
ferruginous, or pale reddish brown, the former darker than 
