: 
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INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES, 213 
birds . . . ~ scores of small rudd and roach were discovered 
lying on the surface where the flock had been resting.” 
Again to quote Mr. Finn from the Aszan:—* A captive bird I 
had under observation devoured no less than forty fish, about two 
inches long, at a meal. No castings were found, but bones and all 
were digested as by a Cormorant, and the excreta were semi-fluid and 
very fcetid. The stomach of this bird proved to be soft throughout, 
not hard and muscular like a duck’s gizzard.’ Some time after this 
was written Mr, Finn was talking to me about this same Goosander, 
and he observed to me that the attitude of the bird on the completion 
of his meal was undoubtedly rather pensive, and he wore a rather 
strained look about his face as if he knew he had reached the limit of 
his carrying capacity. 
The cry with which the Goosander is generally credited is a croak 
by no means musical or soft, but Booth describes the note of the female 
and young as being a soft plaintive whistle. 
For the table the Goosander is quite worthless, and I advise no 
one to try it as long as any other food is obtainable, the only 
thing to be said in its favour is that two courses, fish and game (both 
nasty), may be combined in one. However, Hume says that they 
are eatable if skinned, soaked several times, and then stewed with 
onions and Worcester sauce. He remarks that it will form then 
“an abundant meal for a hungry man;” probably it would, or for 
several hungry men. 
This Merganser undoubtedly breeds freely throughout a great 
portion of the higher and weli-watered Himalayas from 10,000 feet up- 
wards, but so far no one has, I believe, ever taken nest or eggs though 
the young have been captured. 
A very careful search through every book on the subject available 
in the Asiatic Society’s fine library has brought to light nothing that 
has not been freely quoted already with regard to the nidification of 
this bird, so 1 must again make use of the previously much used 
remarks of Dresser, Seebohm and others. 
The Goosander breeds throughout most of Northern Europe and 
Asia. Its nest has been taken frequently in the British Isles, though 
the bird is more common in winter than in the breeding season: 
it is found at that season throughout Denmark, Norway and Sweden, 
