404 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



are not difficult to shoot, as they can be stalked when diving 

 near the land, where they come in very close, sometimes to catch 

 small flounders and other little fish. One I shot had just bolted a 

 mussel, shell and all unbroken. Their flesh is not fit to eat, so we 

 only killed them when wanting specimens." 



Since the above was written, I think it right to state that Mr 

 Elwes, who traversed the greater part of the Outer Hebrides in 

 the summer of 1868, has informed me that he could find no trace 

 whatever of the G-oosander in North Uist, nor indeed in any of 

 the other islands, and has expressed his opinion that both Dr 

 Dewar and Mr M'Donald have been labouring under a mistake in 

 supposing they had seen either the bird or its nest.* While, 

 however, I am quite aware of the painstaking nature of the search 

 made by Mr Elwes, I do not look upon his want of success as 

 setting aside the statements and observations of other naturalists. 

 The late Professor Macgillivray has stated in his work on British 

 Birds that he several times met with Goosanders on the lakes of 

 the Long island in summer; and that his son, Mr John Macgil- 

 livray, " found it pretty common, breeding by the larger lakes and 

 occasionally by the sea, as near Lochmaddy, in North Uist."f 



Like the cormorant, this bird is very destructive to fish in 

 rivers and in fresh-water lakes. Macgillivray mentions that 

 eighteen trout were found in the gullet of one killed on the Tweed 

 in 1838. 



It is only within the last twenty years that the American form 

 of this species has been held to be distinct from that found in 

 Europe, and the following remarks from Professor Baird on this 

 subject may suggest the propriety of a closer scrutiny of specimens 



* A still later testimony his come to me through Captain Feilden and Mr 

 ,T. A. Harvie Brown, who traversed a considerable portion of the Long island 

 in the summer of 1870. Neither of these gentlemen could find a single trace 

 of the bird ; and I may add, that while in North Uist in August of the same 

 year, I was myself equally unfortunate. From a long experience in connection 

 with the Outer Hebrides, I have ascertained, however, that some birds do not 

 regularly visit the same spot, so that the Goosander may possibly turn up after 

 a time in some of the lakes that have been hitherto but little visited. Any 

 one who has experienced the extraordinary difficulties which beset the explorer 

 of these lakes, must know that a question like this requires much patient 

 observation. 



f Dr Fleming remarks in his ' History of British Animals,' that the Goosander 

 breeds in the Hebrides, and Mr Selby mentions having seen two or three birds 

 in the Sutherlandshire lakes in June, 1834. 



