MERGANSER CASTOR. 277 



what Hume writes. He says : — " On land one sees them restino; on 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 rocks, into the water." 



I found that birds wounded and fallen on land got along wonderfully 

 fast. A male which I winged fell on a spit of sand, scuttled across it 

 into the water, and again took to the land on the far side. I ran across 

 after it and had to run hard to catch it, and only just succeeded in 

 grabbing it as it was about to dive into the deep pool beyond the 

 sandbank. 



When running on land they assume a very upright position, almost 

 like that of Penguins, and they can get along at a very fair pace, though 

 they frequently fall and tumble about when hard pressed. 



Now Hume's idea may have been due to his having only seen the 

 birds on the very edge of the water, and even tame ducks ichen close to 

 the icater and on a shelving bank or stone often seem to wriggle and glide 

 into the water, their breasts practically touching the ground en route. 

 Mr. Finn in his article on ducks, which appeared in the 'Asian,' has shown 

 that the Mergansers can walk all right. He says : — " On shore they move 

 about very little and are clumsy walkers, although they get about better 

 than one would expect from the published account of their gait." 



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 well- watered Himalayas from 10,000 feet upwards, but 

 so far no one has, I believe, ever taken nests 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 nidilication of this bird, so 

 I must again make use of the previously much used remarks of Dresser, 

 Seebohm, and others. 



Tlic Goosander breeds throughout most of Northern Europe and Asia. 



