DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS. 223 



expanded. Its food consists of fish, crabs, mol- 

 luscs, and aquatic insects. Most of this is obtained 

 whilst the bird is diving. 



The Goosander, in our islands, is as yet only 

 known to breed in a few localities in the Highlands. 

 Its eggs are laid during April and May. Its 

 favourite nesting haunts are open, swampy forests, 

 containing lakes and rocky streams. The nest is 

 generally made in a hole in a tree, but crevices in 

 rocks, or cavities in exposed tree roots by the water 

 side, are sometimes selected. But little nest is made, 

 although when the full clutch of eggs is deposited a 

 thick and abundant bed of down surrounds them. 

 The eggs are from eight to twelve in number, 

 creamy white and glossy. It is not known whether 

 the drake assists in the duty of incubation. The 

 Goosander has a wide geographical range, which 

 extends over Arctic and North temperate Europe, 

 Asia, and America, and more southern areas during 



winter. 



SMEW. 



This species, the Mergus albellus of systematists, 

 is not only the smallest of the Mergansers, but by 

 far the least common in British waters. Its visits 

 are chiefly confined to the eastern coast line of 

 England and Scotland and the south coast of Eng- 

 land. Even in these areas adult males from their 

 strongly-contrasted black-and-white plumage locally 

 known as " Nuns "are much more rarely met with 

 than females and young birds, called by the gunners 



