WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. a 
In the Smew, the beak is only about an inch-and-a- 
half long, and grey ; the beaks of the other measure 
between two and three inches, and are red, more or 
less dark along the ridge. 
The Goosander’s beak is shorter and thicker than 
that of the Red-breasted Merganser, and has fewer tecth, 
these numbering, in the upper chap, about fifteen 
between the nostril and the nail, while in the Red- 
breasted Merganser’s longer and thinner bill there are 
about eighteen teeth between nail and nostril. 
Besides the difference in length and colour of bill, 
the Goosander and Red-breasted Merganser agree with 
each other, and differ from the Smew, in the following 
points: The teeth of the bill point slantingly back- 
wards, instead of being perpendicular as in the Smew : 
the beak is much narrower, and has the nostril nearer 
the root than in that bird, the shortness of whose bill 
brings the nostril nearly as far forward as in a Goose : 
the feet are red or orange, while in the Smew they are 
grey ; the bulb in the windpipe is larger, and they are 
very much larger birds. 
The Goosander. 
Merganser castor, BLANFORD, Faun. Brit. Ind., 
Birds, Vol. IV, p. 460. 
VERNACULAR NAMES.—None in Ind.; in Yarkand 
Ala ghaz aurdak (Pied Goose-duck). 
‘The male and female differ very much in this species, 
in the former there is a short, bushy, silky, mane-like 
crest, while the female’s crest is much longer and more 
straggling ; the shoulder plumes (scapulars) and inner 
quills (tevtvals) in the male are long and pointed, shorter 
in the female. 
In colour the male is mostly white, but the head and 
upper neck are deep green-black, the upper back, 
