THE GOOSANDER 299 



are frequently adopted. 1 When the nest is at a considerable depth 

 in the hollow trunk of a tree, the removal of the newly hatched young 

 is attended with some difficulty. Mr. Oswin Lee states that after 

 watching one nest for two mornings, which was at the bottom of a 

 vertical hole, six feet deep, he saw the old bird appear at the opening 

 with the nine young in succession. Sometimes the young bird was 

 held in the bill, at other times it was held between the breast and 

 the bill, and once a young bird was allowed to fall from the mouth of 

 the hole to the heather beneath, but was apparently none the worse 

 for the fall. When the last of the young had been safely brought 

 down, the duck led them down the burn. The process of bringing 

 the young out in this case lasted considerably more than an hour. 2 

 In the care of the young the drake appears to take no part : in fact 

 all the evidence tends to prove that as soon as the clutch is complete 

 and the duck has begun to sit, he deserts the locality altogether. 



Mr. E. T. Booth, who watched the development of a brood of 

 young for some weeks before securing them for his museum, noticed 

 that the duck generally keeps her youngsters in shallow water till 

 they are about four or five weeks old, in order to avoid the attacks of 

 pike. He also observed that in fine, bright weather, the young would 

 turn over on their backs in the water in order to sun themselves, and 

 might be seen with one foot flapping in the air and slowly paddling 

 round with the other. This is the more remarkable, as the young of 

 the ordinary wild duck are almost invariably drowned if by any 

 accident they are upset and assume this position. On the other hand, 

 young mergansers seem to be able to withstand almost any amount of 

 buffeting in rough water. 



The young gradually work their way down stream, and the brood 

 watched by Booth moved down the river for nearly ten miles during 

 the seven weeks that they were under observation. The appetite of 



1 The article and illustrations of goosanders' nests in Mr. S. P. Gordon's Birds of the Loch 

 and Mountain obviously refer to those of the redbreasted-merganser. 



2 Among British Birds in their Nesting Haunts, vol. iii. p. 43. 



