GOOSANDER. 229 



this, as in the previous case, the species is a certainty, 

 and the only room for doubt is as to its origin. It will 

 be observed that Hoy was very explicit with regard to 

 the sex and age of the bird, and, although he does not 

 actually state that it was in his own collection, the 

 inference is that it was so. That such a bird was in the 

 collection of the late Mr. Hoy we have the evidence of 

 Dr. Bree, who, when describing a visit to Stoke Nay- 

 land (" Field/' 14th December, 1867, p. 504), speaks of a 

 " Hooded Merganser, under the name of Crested 

 Smew," which, he remarks, Vas " doubtless the specimen 

 recorded as obtained by Mr. Hoy in the ' Naturalist.' ' 

 It thus seems, I think, more than probable that the 

 bird in Mr. Hoy's collection was a genuine Norfolk 

 killed specimen. 



MERGUS MERGANSER, Linnaeus. 

 GOOSANDER. 



" This species," says Mr. Stevenson, " like the pre- 

 ceding, occurs in its immature plumage nearly every 

 winter, and somewhat earlier in the season, appearing 

 at times towards the end of October. Old birds are 

 killed only in sharp weather or just preceding a change 

 to frost and snow, but they are, on the whole, less 

 rare than the [red-breasted] merganser in fully adult 

 plumage." The above note was written probably about 

 the year 1860, and subsequent observation has tended 

 to render the difference between the two species more 

 apparent ; while the red-breasted merganser appears 

 for some years past to have occurred decidedly less 

 often than formerly, the goosander, on the contrary, has 

 increased in frequency, particularly in its adult form, 

 and is now a regular visitant to certain pieces of inland 

 water as well as being occasionally met with on almost 

 all the rivers and broads of the county. 



Hunt, in Stacy's " History of Norfolk," says that 

 a pair of these birds was killed in the winter of 1837, 

 in the neighbourhood of Gunton, near Cromer, a locality 

 to which I shall presently have occasion to refer^ but he 



