DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS. 223 
expanded. Its food consists of fish, crabs, mol- 
luscs, and aquatic insects. Most of this is obtained 
whilst the bird is diving. 
The Goosander, in our islands, is as yet only 
known to breed in a few localities in the Highlands. 
Its eggs are laid during April and May. Its 
favourite nesting haunts are open, swampy forests, 
containing lakes and rocky streams. The nest is 
generally made in a hole in a tree, but crevices in 
rocks, or cavities in exposed tree roots by the water 
side, are sometimes selected. But little nest is made, 
although when the full clutch of eggs is deposited a 
thick and abundant bed of down surrounds them. 
The eggs are from eight to twelve in number, 
creamy white and glossy. It is not known whether 
the drake assists in the duty of incubation. The 
Goosander has a wide geographical range, which 
extends over Arctic and North temperate Europe, 
Asia, and America, and more southern areas during 
winter. 
SMEW. 
This species, the AZergus albellus of systematists, 
is not only the smallest of the Mergansers, but by 
far the least common in British waters. Its visits 
are chiefly confined to the eastern coast line of 
England and Scotland and the south coast of Eng- 
land. Even in these areas adult males—from their 
strongly-contrasted black-and-white plumage locally 
known as “ Nuns ”—are much more rarely met with 
than females and young birds, called by the gunners 
