400 ANATIDJE. 



along with other birds ; in harvest and in winter fly in 

 flocks, in summer in pairs ; the male and female are then 

 strict companions, but, like many other birds, when breed- 

 ing-time is over, part company, and lose acquaintance." 

 The nest, according to Mr. Selby, is constructed " near to 

 the edge of the water, of a mass of grass, roots, and other 

 materials, mixed and lined with down. It is placed some- 

 times among stones, sometimes in long grass, or under the 

 cover of bushes, and, when the locality affords them, in 

 the stumps or hollows of decayed trees." The eggs are 

 of a uniform buff-coloured white, measuring two inches 

 and a half in length, by one inch and eight lines in breadth. 

 Six or seven young are considered a large brood, and the 

 careful mother has been seen, like the Wild Duck, to carry 

 some of her offspring, occasionally, on her back when in 

 the water, as the parent Swan is known to do. 



Mr. Hewitson, in his notes on the ornithology of Nor- 

 way, says, " Of the Goosander we frequently observed small 

 flocks, almost entirely male birds, accompanied rarely by 

 one or two females. The females must have been breed- 

 ing somewhere in the neighbourhood, but it was in vain 

 that we made every search for the eggs." 



Professor Nilsson says the Goosander is not uncommon 

 on the lakes and rivers of Sweden ; and Mr. Dann tells me 

 that it is widely dispersed from Scona to Lapland, as far 

 as the woody districts extend ; and that it breeds at Gelli- 

 vara. Linneus, in his Tour in Lapland, describes a male 

 Goosander which had been caught in a net set for pike, 

 near Lycksele ; and Acerbi in his travels, when on the 

 banks of a river near Kardis, in Lapland, says, " The 

 Mergus merganser, instead of building a small nest, like 

 the Ducks, on the banks, or among the reeds and rushes, 

 chooses to lay her eggs in the trunk of an old tree, in 

 which time, or the hand of man, has made such an excava- 



