246 NETHER LOCHABER. 



the winter is ended, than we do at present. Our web-foot visitors 

 from the far north, at all events, are still with us, and in large 

 numbers, and a very pretty sight a flock of them is as you quietly 

 approach tliem congregated in some sheltered bay, and with a good 

 binocular watch their graceful motions, now disporting themselves 

 and chasing each other in many a merry round over the surface of 

 the water ; now, as if by common consent and in obedience to some, 

 to you inaudible, word of command, they seem to leap rather than 

 dive into the blue depths beneath them, until not one is to be seen, 

 then as suddenly reappearing, again to chase each other, and dis- 

 port and dive, as if they knew you were looking at them, and 

 admired and loved them, and would as soon cut off your finger as 

 think of levelling a murder-dealing weapon at creatures so beautiful 

 and harmless. 



A bird generally rare in our inland waters is this year quite 

 common on all our shores. "We refer to the goosander {Mergus 

 merganser, Linn.), one of the handsomest and most interesting of 

 sea-fowl. Of the Merganser family the goosander is the largest, and 

 the whole order is remarkable for their serrated mandibles, the 

 nearest approach to anything like teeth to be met with among birds, 

 and admirably adapted for retaming firm hold, when seized, of 

 their slippery prey, which mainly consists of eels, lampreys, &c., 

 in dealing with which " kittle cattle " in deep water an ordinary 

 unarmed duck-bill would be a very inefficient weapon. Once in 

 the firm grip of the Merganser's serrated bill, however, the chance 

 of such comparatively small fish as it can alone feed upon must be 

 very small indeed. We saw a very fine male specimen a few days 

 ago, which a young man had shot, believing it to be a " wild duck," 

 as he termed it, and necessarily good for eating. AVe told him 

 that he had been guilty of a piece of very unnecessary and inde- 

 fensible cruelty, for that the bird in his hand was in truth a 

 Merganser, and no more fit to be eaten than a ten-year-old herring 



