IT



of Fntally, who tells me that this is the only specimen of the

bird he has ever received in the course of his long and extensive

experience as a dealer in living animals.


The bird being so rare in captivity, I have thought it

worth while to point out, by means of this specimen, that Mr.

Hume was mistaken in thinking that the species is unable to

walk. He says (Game Birds and Wildfowl of India, Vol. III. p.

301) : “ O11 land one only sees them resting near the water’s

edge, and when disturbed they shuffle on their breasts into the

river. I do not think that they can walk at all. Anyhow, I have

always seen them just half-glide, half-wriggle, breast foremost,

and I think touching the rock, into the water.”/A)


But from the actions of the bird now exhibited, it is easy

to see that the Goosander can walk like other ducks, and does so

in the same attitude as they, though it is not so active on land as

the less aquatic species. No doubt the birds seen by Mr. Hume

were simply disinclined to stand up and walk property when they

had but a very short distance to go, and preferred the lazier

methed of locomotion he describes in the passage above quoted.



REVIEW.


Bird Life in an Arctic Spring.


This is a small book, containing the diaries of the late Mr.

Dan Meinertzhagen, a member of this Society, and Mr. R. P.

Hornby, on a bird-collecting expedition in Finland. The diaries

have been reprinted just as they were written, da}^ by day, on the

northern fells, and, if they lack the polish of notes written for

publication, it is more than compensated for by the freshness of

the narrative, which enables the reader to enter into all the

the authors’ hopes and disappointments as though they were

fellow-travellers.


The latter portion of the book gives a short account

of the live eagles kept by the author, and is illustrated with

numerous photographs and drawings, many of them from the

living birds. The book, which was, originally, only intended for

private circulation, and of which a very limited edition has been

printed, is published by R. H. Porter, of 7, Prince’s Street,

Cavandish Square.


(c). The bird was here put down on the floor and made to walk about, which it did

in the ordinary manner of ducks, though unwillingly, having probably not recovered con¬

dition after a long journey from the Hills. A specimen of the allied Merganser castor not

distinguished from the present species by Hume, who calls both Mergus merganser op. cit.)

which I saw last year in the London Zoological Gardens constantly walked about quite

freely, as did some Smews {Mergus albelltis) observed at the same time and place.



