The Goosander. '93 



for thirty years, and in all that time have never seen a Merganser, but Goosanders 

 are common in hard weather." On the broads and lakes of Norfolk also the 

 Goosander is much the commonest of the two. 



The summer range of the Goosander extends across the whole of Northern 

 Europe and Asia, and in the former Continent as far south as the Swiss lakes, 

 where it is known to have nested. It is very rare in Fseroe, and Miiller records 

 only one instance of its capture there. It nests in Iceland and in many parts of 

 Scandinavia, sometimes on the ground, and sometimes in a hole of a tree. Mr. 

 H. J. Pearson met with two pairs, in 1895, in Russian-Lapland, several pairs in 

 Kolguev, and a number of old birds in Novaya Zemlya, but no nests or young 

 were found. Messrs. Alston and Harvie-Brown met with it near Archangel, but 

 it is not common there. Mr. Hartert says it breeds plentifully in the southern 

 and eastern parts of East Prussia, and that the eggs are deposited in large hollow 

 trees, and are laid from the end of April to the middle of May, and is found also 

 in the winter season. It nests also regularly in Denmark. The Goosander does 

 not breed on the Pamir, but at a lower elevation, ascending after the breeding 

 season in July. In Europe it winters from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, and is 

 then found in Southern Spain ; in Sardinia, however, it is the rarest of the 

 three European Mergansers ; there is one specimen in the Museum at Cagliari. 

 According to Mr. C. A. Wright, it has once occurred in Malta ; is not uncommon 

 in Turkey, and occasionally seen on the Bosphorus. Mr. C. G. Danford found it 

 on the Euphrates in winter. In the Caucasus it occurs on migration, and winters 

 on the shores of the Black Sea; at Astrakhan commonly in autumn and winter; 

 at Gilgit frequents the mountain streams in winter, and is found also at this 

 season throughout Northern India and in China, the Corea and Japan. 



Mr. F. W. Styan, ("Ibis," 1891, p. 498), reports it as very common in the 

 Lower Yangtse Basin ; in the thick water of the river they dive under for food, 

 but in the clear mountain streams they paddle on the surface with only the beak 

 and eyes immersed, and when they see their prey down they go. 



The Goosander is well-known in the Orkneys, where it is a regular winter visitor, 

 but is very rarely observed in the Shetlands. It is of very rare occurrence in the 

 Outer Hebrides, nor, although common on the coast, has it been yet recorded as 

 nesting anywhere on the Inner Islands ; but when we come to the mainland of 

 Scotland the case is very different. The joint authors of "A Fauna of Argyll 

 and the Inner Hebrides " say, " we know it to have bred all along the west water- 

 shed, as well as on the eastern slope of the backbone of Scotland, from near 

 Eddrachillis, in Assynt, to Loch Awe, and we will not be surprised now at any 

 time to learn positively of it further still to the westward." In fact our authors 



Vol.. IV 21 



