332 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



legs and toes of a dull red. All three varieties 

 of the scoter are expert divers. 



The surf scoter is somewhat rare in Britain, 

 and those individuals which visit us from time 

 to time hail from North America. Saunders 

 states that it is most frequently found on the 

 Western coasts, * where the influence of the Gulf 

 Stream predominates.' The general colour of its 

 plumage is black, a patch of white being con- 

 spicuous on the forehead, and another on the 

 nape of the neck ; the bill, the legs and toes are 

 orange-red. The plumage of the female is of a 

 brownish shade of black, and sometimes with two 

 white spots on the cheeks ; the colour of the legs 

 and toes is orange-yellow. 



The goosander, the red-breasted merganser, and 

 the smew, are all three what are termed mergansers, 

 or sawbills, their bills being straight and slender, 

 with the edges serrated, like the teeth of a saw, 

 but turned backwards for the purpose of enabling 

 them to seize and retain the fish upon which they 

 feed. Both the goosander and the red-breasted 

 merganser have the same peculiar habit of rising 

 half out of the water and flapping their wings 

 after having captured a fish, though I do not think 

 that this is also a characteristic of the smew. All 

 three varieties frequent the large lakes and inland 

 waters. The goosander is the largest of the three, 

 measuring twenty-six inches in length, as com- 

 pared with twenty-four, the length of the red- 

 breasted merganser, and seventeen, that of the 



