MERGANSER CASTOR. 279 



Greenland. Seebohm remarks: — ''The Goosander immediately avails 

 itself o£ the wooden boxes which the Finns fasten up in the trees to 

 tempt them. These boxes are made with a trap-door behind, so that the 

 peasant may daily rob the nest, and thus make the too-confiding bird lay 

 a score or more ego-s." 



Sometimes, however, the nest is made on the ground. Thus Dresser : 

 " In Uleaborg- I obtained eggs from nests on the ground^ in a hollow 

 scratched out and filled with down." Again, Dybowski, Avriting of its 

 nidification in Southern Siberia, says : It nests on the ground, amongst 

 the grass, building with dry grass and lining the interior thoroughly with 

 dowu.^' 



The bird is a very close sitter and most ali'ectionate mother. 

 Dr. Leverkiihn writes to me : — " Mer<janser castor. — Four times I found 

 this beautiful bird breeding in North Germany and Finland ; the nests 

 were placed in holes in old trees^ once in a public garden in the vicinity 

 of a small town. The female bird was on the egos and did not like to 

 relinquish them, although we made much noise by striking with our 

 sticks against the tree. In the end I climbed up to the hole and 

 attempted to capture the bird with my hand, covered by a stout glove, 

 but the bird attacked me so energetically that she made the blood run 

 from my hand and I was forced to retire. I returned the following day 

 with two friends and a complicated machine for taking the bird, but on 

 our approach we were very much disappointed to find the hole empty 

 without bird or eggs. The whole hollow was filled by a mass of downy 

 feathers, quite sufficient to make a pillow. 



" On a melancholy lake in the midst of Finland I once observed a 

 female with thirteen chicks, who climbed about on the back, and even on 

 the head, of their mother_, probably being tired by the, as yet little used, 

 art of swimming." 



Several other observers have seen the female Goosander carrying her 

 ducklings in this manner. 



Booth notes one thing which I should not pass over. He says : 

 " From time to time a portion of the In-ood turn over on their backs, 

 remaining often in this position for several seconds."' Most of us know 

 the unha[)py result if a tame duckling has the misfortune to tumble over 

 on its back. 



The eggs are said by various writers to number i'rom six to twelve, 

 though the birds will continue to lay on l)eing robbed, and in such cases 

 will lay over a score of eggs. 



