GOOSANDER. 265 
cellent divers, and run on the surface with surprising velocity ; but 
they are not able to fly for nearly two months, when, being fat, they 
are easily fatigued if closely pursued, and on such occasions will often 
betake themselves to the shore, lie down, and even allow you to lay 
hold of them. My friend Tuomas Nurratu has given an interesting 
account of his chase of a brood of Goosanders. 
« Early in the month of May 1832, while descending the Susque- 
hannah near to Dunstown, a few miles below the gorge of the Alle- 
ghanies, through which that river meanders near the foot of the Bald 
Eagle Mountain, G. Lyman, Esq. and myself observed, near the head 
of a little bushy island, some Wild Duck, as we thought, with her 
brood making off round a point which closed the view. On rowing to 
the spot, the wily parent had still continued her retreat, and we gave 
chase to the party, which with all the exertions that could be made in 
rowing, still kept at a respectful distance before us. We now per- 
ceived that these diminutive possessors of their natal island were a fe- 
male Goosander or Dun Diver, with a small but active little brood of 
eight young ones. On pushing the chase for near half an hour, the 
young, becoming somewhat fatigued, drew around their natural protec- 
tor, who now and then bore them along crowding on her back. At 
length, stealing nearly from our sight, as the chase relaxed, the mo- 
ther landed at a distance on the gravelly shore, which being nearly of 
her own grey colour and that of her family, served for some time, as a 
complete concealment. When approached again, however, they took 
to the water, and after a second attempt, in which the young strove to 
escape by repeated divings, we succeeded in cutting off the retreat of 
one of the family, which was at length taken from behind a flat boat 
under which it had finally retreated to hide. We now examined the 
little stranger, and found it to be a young Merganser of this species, 
not bigger than the egg of a Goose, and yet already a most elegant 
epitome of its female parent, generally grey, with the rufous head and 
neck, and the rudiments of a growing crest. After suffering itself to 
be examined with great calmness, and without any apparent fear, we 
restored it to its more natural element, and, at the first effort, this 
little diminutive of its species flew under the water like an arrow, and 
coming out to the surface only at considerable distances, we soon lost 
sight of it, making good its aquatic retreat in quest of the parent. On 
inquiry, we learned from the tavern-keeper, that for several years past 
