PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 287 



down is of a uniform dark brown above, showing a faint trace of the usual light 

 spot behind the wing. [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. It is only of late years that the goosander has established 

 itself as a breeding species in Scotland, but it is increasing its range and now breeds 

 in fair numbers in Sutherland, Ross, and Inverness, as well as in the other counties 

 which form part of the Moray area (Elgin, Banff, W. Aberdeen). Harvie-Brown 

 describes it as now common and increasing hi the Tay area, and in the Argyll area 

 it nests on the mainland as far south as Loch Awe. Hitherto it has not been found 

 breeding on any of the islands (except on the Summer Isles, near the coast of W. 

 Ross), 1 but since the first brood was reported in Scotland in 1871 its spread has 

 been so rapid that it is probable that it will soon be recorded from other areas in 

 the south of the country. There are no records of breeding in Ireland. Outside 

 the British Isles it has rarely been found in the Faeroes, but breeds hi Iceland, and 

 on the Continent nests in Norway and also in Sweden from Skane and Blekinge to 

 Jemtland and Lapland, hi Finland south to Abo, and in Russia from the Murman 

 coast, Kolguev, Waigatz, and Novaya Zemlya southward to the northern part of the 

 Orenburg government, the middle and upper Volga valley, and the Baltic provinces. 

 It breeds sparingly in Jylland and Northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein, Mark 

 Brandenburg, Pomerania, West and East Prussia, and Silesia), and has recently 

 been found nesting in Bavaria, on the Swiss Lakes, as well as hi Bosnia; and possibly 

 also breeds hi the Dobrogea. In Asia it ranges across the continent east to the Kuriles 

 and Commander Isles, but is apparently replaced by an allied race in the highlands 

 of Central Asia south to Tibet and the Himalaya range, and also in North America 

 north of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. During the winter months its migrations 

 extend to the Spanish, Maroccan, and Algerian coasts (rare), while it has been once 

 observed in Egypt; the northern shores and some of the islands in the Mediterranean, 

 the Black and Caspian Seas, but it is not confined to the coasts, and works down 

 the rivers of Southern Europe; while in Asia specimens have been obtained in 

 Palestine, the Euphrates valley, the Persian Gulf, India south to Bombay, Burma, 

 China, Corea, and Japan ; and American birds range south to the Gulf of Mexico, 

 Lower California, and Northern Mexico. [F. c. n. J.] 



3. Migration. A common breeding species in the north of Scotland (see 

 preceding paragraph) ; otherwise a whiter visitor to the British Isles, arriving 

 exceptionally as early as 21st August, but usually between 25th September and 



1 Macgillivray, however, believed that it bred in the Outer Hebrides, and a nest is said to 

 have been found there in 1858, but this requires confirmation, which up till now has been 

 lacking. Probably the records refer to the redbreasted-merganser. 



