266 , GOOSANDER. 



others the Sheldrake, Fisherman, Diver, &c. is a winter inha- 

 bitant only, of the seashores, fresh water lakes, and rivers of 

 the United States. They usually associate in small parties of 

 six or eight, and are almost continually diving in search of food. 

 In the month of April they disappear, and return again early in 

 November. Of their particular place and manner of breeding 

 we have no account. Mr. Pennant observes that they continue 

 the whole year in the Orknies; and have been shot in the He- 

 brides, or Western islands of Scotland in summer. They are 

 also found in Iceland, and Greenland, and are said to breed 

 there; some asserting that they build on trees; others that they 

 make their nests among the rocks. 



The male of this species is twenty-six inches in length, and 

 three feet three inches in extent, the bill three inches long, and 

 nearly one inch thick at the base, serrated on both mandibles; 

 the upper overhanging at the tip, where each is furnished with 

 a large nail; the ridge of the bill is black, the sides crimson red; 

 i rides red; head crested, tumid, and of a black colour glossed 

 with green, which extends nearly half way down the neck, the 

 rest of which, with the breast and belly, are white tinged with 

 a delicate yellowish cream; back and adjoining scapulars black; 

 primaries and shoulder of the wing brownish black; exterior 

 part of the scapulars, lesser coverts, and tertials white; second- 

 aries neatly edged with black, greater coverts white, their up- 

 per halves black, forming a bar on the wing, rest of the upper 

 parts and tail brownish ash; legs and feet the colour of red seal- 

 ing wax; flanks marked with fine semicircular dotted lines of 

 deep brown; the tail extends about three inches beyond the 

 wings. 



This description was taken from a full plumaged male. The 

 young males, which are generally much more numerous than 

 the old ones, so exactly resemble the females in their plumage 

 for at least the first, and part of the second year, as scarcely to 

 be distinguished from them; and what is somewhat singular, 

 the crests of these and of the females are actually longer than 

 those of the full grown male, though thinner towards its extre- 



