358 SWIMMERS. 



AMERICAN MERGANSER. 



goosander. buff-breasted shelldrake. saw-bill. 



Merganser americanus. 



Char. Head and neck black, with green reflections; back and scapu- 

 lars black ; rump slate gray ; wings brown, varied with white ; a black bar 

 across the white wing-coverts; under parts white, tinged with delicate 

 salmon pink, which soon fades after death ; bill bright red ; legs and feet 

 orange. Length about 26 inches. The female is smaller, the head and 

 neck are chestnut, and the feathers of the neck are elongated to a con- 

 spicuous crest. 



Nest. Usually in a hollow tree, — often in a wooden box set for its use 

 by egg-hunters; sometimes in a hole in a cliff or under a rock, or even in 

 an abandoned nest in a tree; made of grass, leaves, and moss, and thickly 

 lined with down. 



Eggs. 6-12 (usually about 8) ; creamy white ; size very variable, aver- 

 age about 2.65 X 1.80. 



The Goosander inhabits the remote northern regions of both 

 continents, being seen during summer on the borders of grassy- 

 lakes and streams throughout the whole of the fur countries, 

 and is among the latest of its tribe in autumn to seek an 

 asylum in milder climates. It is said to breed in every lati- 

 tude in the Russian empire, but mostly in the north. It is 

 common also in Kamtschatka, and extends through northern 

 Europe to the wintry shores of Iceland and Greenland. Many 

 of these birds, however, pass the breeding-season in the Ork- 

 neys, and these scarcely ever find any necessity to migrate. 

 They are seen in small families or companies of six or eight in 

 the United States in winter, and frequent the sea-shores, lakes, 

 and rivers, continually diving in quest of their food, which con- 

 sists principally of fish and shelly mollusca. They are also 

 very gluttonous and voracious, like the Albatross, sometimes 

 swallowing a fish too large to enter whole into the stomach, 

 which therefore lodges in the oesophagus till the lower part is 

 digested, before the remainder can follow. The roughness of 

 the tongue, covered with incurved projections, and the form of 

 the bent serratures which edge the bill, appear all purposely 

 contrived with reference to its piscatory habits. In the course 



