THE GOOSANDER 297 



forward a foot or two with a sudden jerk. The three actions do not 

 take place in any fixed order, and are not always to be noted on any 

 one occasion. The feathers of the head are also somewhat elevated 

 so as to form a crest, and slight bowings and head tossings may also 

 be observed. A comparison with the records of the courtship-display 

 of other species of ducks shows that there is a very strong family 

 likeness between most of them in nearly every case where the obser- 

 vations are at all full, the only gaps in the series being in those 

 cases, such as that of the smew, where material is almost entirely 

 wanting. 



Mr. Brock notes that while the display was going on, a soft, low, 

 croaking note was continuously uttered. Directly one drake began 

 to display, other drakes began to hurry to the spot, and those at some 

 distance would often rise on the wing in order to take part, till a little 

 band was collected together, the individuals swimming to and fro in 

 close company. The display was not altogether confined to the males, 

 for ducks were seen occasionally, but not often, to go through the 

 second and third movements, but not the first, which appears to be 

 peculiar to the male in this species. There was not much active 

 rivalry between the different males : now and then one would make a 

 lunge with his bill at a neighbour, and even pursue him for a short 

 distance over the water, and the females sometimes repelled the 

 advances of a male in the same way. 1 



By March and April these birds had all paired off and departed 

 for their breeding-grounds ; but E. T. Booth observed males and 

 females, adults and immatures, still in flocks at the end of April, 

 although by that time they had already paired. These flocks, how- 

 ever, broke up early in May. 



The goosander is an excellent diver, disappearing beneath the 

 surface without apparent effort, and remaining under water for periods 

 of varying length. Mr. T. A. Coward states that the period of immer- 

 sion varies from ten seconds to a minute and a half, and that the 



1 Scottish Naturalist, 1912, p. 116. 



