DUCKS 87 
Eggs. Usually 5-8. Pale buff to warm cream. Rather 
pointed and oval in shape; large. Av. size, 2°57 x1°75 in. 
Laying begins in June. One brood. 
Family: Anatide. (e) Subfamily : Mergine—Sawbill-ducks 
174. Goosander [Mergus merganser merganser (Linneeus)]. 
Breeds in N. Scottish mainland, and occasionally W. Isles 
(Summer Isles). Winter visitor and bird of passage, chiefly to 
our E. coasts. Salt and freshwater species. 
Bird. Length 26 in. Like the other sawbills, the goosander 
has a straight, slender bill, hooked, and with the edges of 
both mandibles 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 
scapulars, wing-coverts, secondaries, and under-parts mostly 
white 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 move 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. 
White on the major coverts and inner secondaries. Under- 
parts white with more or less rosy tint, except the flanks, 
which are grey or greyish-buff. Thick, bushy crest. Beak and 
legs 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 
hollow 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°69x 
1°85 in. Laying begins in April. bne brood. 
175. Redbreasted-merganser [Mergus serrator (Linnzus)]. 
Breeds N. and mid-Scotland and in : 
freland. 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- Fie. 102 
tinguished in both sexes by the ie 
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 
