172 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
GOOSANDER. 
MeErcus mERGANSER, Linn. 
Pl. XXVIL., fig. 1. 
Geogr. distr.—Entire Palearctic and Nearctic Regions, being found 
in the north in summer and in the south in winter; to Great Britain 
it is for the most part a winter visitor, though it occasionally breeds 
in Perthshire, and possibly the Outer Hebrides.* 
Food.—Fish, Amphibians, and Crustacea. 
Nest.—A hollow scratched in the ground, or more often in a hollow 
tree, lined with dried grass or rootlets, down, and sometimes husks of 
beech-buds. 
Position of nest.—Near large lakes, or on small islands in the 
vicinity of the sea. 
Number of eggs.—8-12. 
Time of nidification.—IV-V; usually the end of April or beginning 
of May. 
In Part VII. of his ‘Rough Notes’ Mr. E. T. Booth says :— 
“Throughout the districts in which I met with Goosanders 
during the breeding season, the females appeared in some 
instances to resort to situations for nesting purposes at a 
considerable elevation on the hills. A cavity in a large 
and partially decayed birch was pointed out by a keeper as’ 
a spot from which some eggs (previously seen in his 
possession) had been taken. The old and weather-beaten 
stump was on the outskirts of a thicket of birch, fir, and 
alder stretching from a swamp up a steep brae, and within 
a mile of a loch in which I have repeatedly watched two or 
three broods. The tree was carefully examined, and I 
noticed that down from the breast of the bird was still 
clinging to the rotten wood ; the general appearance also’ 
of the rubbish in the hollow left little doubt as to the truth 
of the statement. On more than one occasion I have been 
informed by keepers and gillies well acquainted with this 
species that they had met with broods on the bare and open 
moors following the course of some of the larger burns.” 
* Mr. Howard Saunders, however, records his conviction that the 
eggs taken in the Hebrides were those of the Red-breasted Merganser. 
