354 



MERGANSERS 



denly surprised. In winter, it is a very rare event to see goosanders 

 ashore, but in spring they often leave the water, and will spend hours 

 sleeping and preening on some small island or point of land. No birds 

 are more industrious in their toilet than the mergansers in spring, and 

 most of their time, when not feeding, flying or sleeping, is spent in 

 polishing up their plumage and bathing." 



These mergansers are primarily fish eaters though to a lesser extent 

 they also feed on various molluscs, crustaceans, water insects, larvae, and 

 certain aquatic plants. Fishes make up the bulk of their food and they 

 are voracious feeders, pursuing and catching the fastest of the finny 

 tribe. When feeding in flocks they may be seen rushing along the sur- 

 face, chasing schools of fish with much diving and splashing, the hind- 

 most ones of the flock flying out of the water to land in front of the 

 flock and being succeeded in turn by the others. Audubon says: "I 

 have found fishes in its stom- 

 ach 7 inches in length, and of 

 smaller kinds so many as to 

 weigh more than half a 

 pound. Digestion takes place 

 with great rapidity, insomuch 

 that some which I have fed in 

 captivity devoured more than 

 two dozen of fishes about 4 

 inches in length, four times 

 daily, and yet always seemed 

 desirous of more." (At this 

 rate of consumption each 

 bird would eat 35,000 fishes 

 a year!) 



The following descrip- 

 tion of the courtship of this 

 species is condensed from an 

 account by Townsend (1916): 

 A group of five or six male 

 mergansers may be seen 

 swimming energetically back 

 and forth by three or four 

 passive females. Sometimes 

 the drakes swim in a com- ' 

 pact mass or in a file for six or seven yards or even further, and then 

 each turns abruptly and swims back. Again they swim in and out among 

 each other, and every now and then one with swelling breast and slightly 

 raised wings spurts ahead at great speed by himself or in the pursuit 

 of a rival. The birds suggest swift motor boats by the waves which 

 curl up on either side, and again suggest polo ponies, as one in rapid 

 course pushes sidewise against a rival, in order to keep him away 

 from the object of the quest. They frequently strike at each other with 



