Goosander. 497 



such truly oceanic ducks penetrate so far as our inland county. 

 The Rev. George Marsh, however, had a pair in his collection 

 which were killed in Wiltshire on the river Avon, in February, 

 1838. Mr. Grant, of Devizes, reports one killed at Wedhampton, 

 in the parish of Erchfont, in January, 1861 ; another on the 

 canal at Devizes in 1862; one at S to well in 1875; and one at 

 Spye Park in 1881. Major Heneage has a pair shot at Lyneham, 

 one in 1856, the other in 1857. The Marlborough College 

 Natural History Reports state that one was shot at Stitchcombe 

 by Mr. R. Butler in December, 1879. Lord Arundell mentions 

 one killed at Wardour about twenty years ago. Lord Nelson 

 has a specimen killed at Trafalgar ; and the Rev. E. Duke, one 

 killed at Great Durnford, on the estate adjoining Lake. The 

 Rev. W. H. Awdry tells me of one killed near Ludgershall this 

 spring (1887), and Mr. G. Sotheron Estcourt records how one 

 has visited the lake at Estcourt this winter, swimming about for 

 several weeks with the domesticated wild ducks, but especially 

 with the Coots. Again, I have a notice, which I extract from 

 the Zoologist* of its occurrence at Clarendon Park, Salisbury, 

 where the bailiff picked up a fine male specimen quite dead on 

 the banks of the lake in February, 1867, its mouth full of fresh- 

 water weeds. The Rev. A. P. Morres has twice fallen in with 

 them in the meadows at Britford, where on the first occasion two 

 adult birds in fine plumage, and on the second occasion, in 1870, 

 a small band of three attracted his attention ; and as a proof that 

 he was not mistaken in the species, which he only saw on the 

 wing, one was killed by the keeper in the evening of the same 

 day. Lastly, Mr. Hussey Freke, of Hannington Hall, reported 

 that a female specimen was shot on the river Thames, in the 

 parish of Highworth, on January 6, 1871. It is called 'Goosander' 

 by us, and Merganser, or ' Diving Goose/ as its scientific name, 

 on account of its size, as it is the largest of the genus. So in 

 Sweden it is Stor Skrake, or ' Great Saw-Bill.' From its manner 

 of fishing in flocks, and driving the fish before it, it has acquired 

 in Sweden the name of Kor-fogel, or ' Driving Bird.' Then, when 

 Second Series, volume for 1867, p. 709. 



32 



