MERGANSER. 4 ai 



THE Mergus Cafior*,, fuppofed by Linnaus and Brijfon to be v 2 - 



a diftinct fpecies, feems lb little to differ from the Dun-Diver 

 as to be efteemed as one bird ; it is indeed much lefs in fize, being 

 fcarcely bigger than the Smew : the length of my fpecimen 

 twenty-one inches and a half: breadth twenty-feven : weight 

 feventeen ounces : the bill two inches and a quarter: as to the 

 colours, and the diftinction of them, it is much the fame as in the 

 Dun-Diver; but the neck has a greater mixture of afh-colour, 

 and there is a pale ftreak between the noftrils and eye: the reft 

 as in the laft-named bird. 



This is faid to be common in Germany ; and at times to be Place, 



found as low as Egypt f. The fpecimen referred to above was 

 killed on the coaft of Suffolk. 



An opinion has prevailed among later authors, that the Goofah- 

 d'er and Dun-Diver were male and female only, and not diftinct 

 fpecies ; but perhaps this conjecture may not be fo firmly eftab- 

 lifhed as not to admit of the intrufion of a different' fentiment : 

 and the following facts lead us again to feparate them into dif- 

 ferent fpecies. 



In the firft place, the Dun-Diver is ever lefs than the Goofan- 

 der ; and individuals of that bird differ greatly in fize among 

 themfelves : and, if we admit the laft-defcribed as a variety only, 

 in an extreme degree : we may alfo add, that the crejl is consi- 

 derably longer and fuller in the one efteemed as the female, than 

 in that thought to be the male; a circumftance obferved in no 



* Bie-vre Qifeau, fee Behn, Hift. Nat. des Oif. p. 163.— This author talks of 

 its building on rocks and trees. 

 f Id. 



©thee 



