DUCKS 87 



Eggs. Usually 5-8. Pale buff to warm cream. Rather 

 poiLted and oval in shape ; large. Av. size, 2'57 x 1*75 in. 

 Laying begins in June. One brood. 



Family : Anatida. (e) Subfamily : Mergince Sawbill-ducks 



174. Goosander [Mergus merganser merganser (Linnaeus)]. 

 Breeds in N. Scottish mainland, and occasionally W. Isles 

 (Sunnier Isles). Winter visitor and bird of passage, chiefly to 

 our E, coasts. Salt and freshwater species. 



BirL Length 26 in. Like the other sawbills, the goosander 

 has a straight, slender bill, hooked, and with the edges of 

 both nandibles cut with saw-like teeth directed backward. 

 The drake has the head and upper part of neck glossy black- 

 green. Nape feathers somewhat elongated, but no conspicuous 

 crest like the merganser. Mantle mostly black. The outside 

 scapilars, wing-coverts, secondaries, and under-parts mostly 

 whiti with salmon-pink tinge on the under-parts. Legs and 

 beak red. In "eclipse" (July- October) the drake is like the 

 female, but has darker upper-parts and a more or less com- 

 plete black ring round the neck between the chestnut-brown 

 and whitish areas. The duck has the head and neck chestnut- 

 red, with a white throat. Upper-parts mostly slate-grey. 

 Write on the major coverts and inner secondaries. Under- 

 parts white with more or less rosy tint, except the flanks, 

 wiich are grey or greyish-buff. Thick, bushy crest. Beak and 

 le*s red. The young female resembles fairly closely the duck, 

 the male being more like the adult male in "eclipse." 



Nest. On islets in lochs, near streams or rivers ; built in 

 hcllow trees, holes in a bank, hillside, or among boulders; 

 occasionally in a hollow in the ground or under a thick bush. 

 Material : dry grass, rootlets, &c. , and down. In a tree-hole, 

 decayed wood. 



Eggs. Usually 7-12. Creamy or yellowish. Av. size, 2-69 x 

 1 '85 in. Laying begins in April. One brood. 



175. Redbreasted-merganser [Mergus sermtor (Linnseus)]. 

 Breeds N. and mid-Scotland and in 



Ireland. Also winter visitor and bird 

 of passage. More marine than the 

 goosander. 



Bird. See No. 174. Length 24 in., 

 therefore smaller than the goosan- 

 der, from which it may be dis- ^ 109 

 tinguished in both sexes by the 

 reddish throat. The drake has a blackish-green head with 

 a double crest of long slender feathers (see Fig. 102). Iris red. 

 A white ring round the neck. Upper breast reddish-brown 



