THE GOOSANDER. 355 



majority of them breed in places farther to the north ; but a 

 few breed, not only in the more remote Scotch isles, but on 

 the mainland, in the marshy and humid districts of the north- 

 west of Sutherland and Ross. The nest is on the margins of 

 the fresh waters, composed of withered grass and down from 

 the breasts of the birds ; the eggs are from eight to twelve, 

 of a smooth and shining buff. 



The length of the mature male is about twenty inches, the 

 breadth about thirty, and the weight nearly two pounds. 

 The bill to the gape three inches, closely toothed, hooked at 

 the tip, dusky on the ridge, reddish in the other parts ; the 

 irides, feet, and middle of the breast, red, the latter more or 

 less mottled with dusky. Head and upper part of the neck 

 (the former having a loose crest pendent over the nape) deep 

 green with purple reflections ; the upper part of the back' 

 black, the lower and the sides mottled with brown and grey ; 

 a white spot on the fore shoulder- the scapulars next the 

 wing white ; the wing black at the margin, with a large 

 white spot in the middle, shaded by two lines of black ; the 

 tail dusky ; the front of the neck white ; the breast reddish 

 chestnut ; the belly white, but with some dusky mottling on 

 the thighs and flanks. The female has the head and neck 

 brownish, the back greyish ash ; the breast mottled with 

 grey ; the wings dusky brown, and only one black line across 

 the wing spot. The immature male resembles the female 

 more than the mature male. 



THE GOOSANDER (Mergus Merganser). 



This species is also only a winter visitant in the southern 

 parts of Britain ; but it probably breeds in the same places 

 of the north, where the females and the young appear to have 

 been sometimes confounded with each other. 



This is a much larger bird than the preceding. The male 



2 A2 



