( 261 ) 
GOOSANDER. 
MERGUS MERGANSER, LINN. 
PLATE CCCXXXI. Mate anp FEMALE. 
Tuts species may be said to be a constant resident with us, as 
many individuals breed in the interior of the States of New York, 
Massachusetts, and Maine. When I first resided in Kentucky, 
some bred there also, although at the present day none pass the sum- 
mer in that country. In the latter part of autumn, in winter, and in 
early spring, they are found in all parts of the Union; in Texas I 
procured some in April 1837, and in the beginning of May saw a con- 
siderable flock in Galveston Bay. How much farther southward their 
migrations extend I know not, but from having observed them coming 
from that direction, I suspect that they advance pretty far into the in- 
terior of Mexico, from which some perhaps cross to the Arkansas 
River, on which I have also seen them. On the Mississippi, the Ohio, 
and their tributaries, Goosanders are found during the coldest weather ; 
and when the larger streams are covered with ice, they betake them- 
selves to such smaller creeks as have very rapid currents or cascades, 
about which they feed. But there are parts of our southern coast, 
where they are exceedingly rare, such as South Carolina, where my 
friend Dr Bacumawn has never seen one, and the Floridas, in which 
none occurred to me during my rambles there. Indeed one is sur- 
prised to find that among birds like this, which is so hardy as to re- 
main in our North-eastern States during the severest part of the winter, 
some should extend their movements at the same season as far to the 
south-west as Texas; but facts like these are beyond our philosophy. 
In the lower parts of Louisiana, this species is called the “ Bec-scie- 
de-mer,” probably because there it is found only on the large salt- 
water lakes, and about the mouths of the Mississippi, and to distin- 
guish it from the Hooded Merganser, which there is more usually seen 
on fresh water. I have been assured by Professor MacCuttocnu of 
Pictou that it now and then breeds in Nova Scotia. Yet I found none 
in Labrador or Newfoundland, where the Red-breasted species was 
breeding in great numbers. Dr RicHarpsow found it in abundance 
in the Fur Countries. 
