194 



British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



consider it one of the most rapidly advancing amongst breeding species of Anatidee 

 in Scotland. Accounts from other parts of the Scotch Highlands shew that the 

 Goosander is a rapidly extending breeding species. In Ireland the Goosander is 

 an annual winter visitor, but in very limited numbers and chiefly to fresh- water. 



Mr. Haigh, writing of the coast of Wales, with which he is well acquainted, 

 says : — " in some winters the estuaries are sometimes visited by small flocks, almost 

 always including some old males in the beautiful black and cream-coloured 

 plumage. At other times they are scarce, and I often pass several years without 

 seeing one. In diving, these birds and the Mergansers do not appear to use their 

 wings as the diving Ducks invariably do, in this respect resembling the Grebes 

 and the Cormorant." 



At Heligoland, Herr Gatke says the Goosander is rarely seen in mild winters, 

 or at most a blue- grey young or female ; on the other hand, in very severe 

 weather, beautiful old males appear in fairly large numbers, and are more abundant 

 than the females or young. 



In the Humber the Goosander is much more numerous in some years than 

 others, this was the case in the winter of 1886-7, i^i o^i^ case five were killed at 

 one shot from a flock of twelve. In 1893-4-5, the occurrences in my note book 

 of old males have been in January or early in February. I have occasionally seen 

 Goosanders in very severe weather on the "beck" in this parish, and once killed 

 an adult male which, on falling, threw up two trout fresh and clean, evidently 

 just swallowed, one was seven the other five inches long. Macgillivray mentions 

 sixteen trout taken from the stomach of one killed on the Tweed, in 18.38. 



Much doubt existed amongst the early ornithologists in connection with the 

 male, female, and young of the Goosander. The female, known as the Dun 

 Diver, was rightly considered by Pennant to be the female bird ; Colonel Montagu,' 

 however, made a distinct species of it under the name of Dun Diver. The females 

 and young also of this and Mergus serrator have frequently been confused. 



The American Goosander can only be considered a sub-species of the present, 

 the adult males have the black colour of the greater wing-coverts exposed so as 

 to form a distinct bar across the wing; the females and young of the two races 

 are practically not to be distinguished; the habits of the two are alike. The 

 American bird breeds across the whole of the northern parts of the country, from 

 the Great Lakes northward, but has not been recognized as occurring in 

 Greenland. The Goosander, by preference, makes its nest in the hole of some 

 rotting tree, failing this it will nest on the ground. In the Highlands a nest has 

 been found in a hole in a large dead pine, twelve feet from the ground, also in 

 hollows and under roots of trees. The down is lighter than that of the Ducks, 



