﻿GOOSANDER. 177 



breeding-season that it is not very fearful of the approach of 

 men. This bird is sociable with its own species, but does 

 not mix by choice with other water- fowl. 



Its call-note sounds like the word carrr, carrr ! and is 

 generally uttered when the bird takes wing ; the young pipe 

 while they are in their down. 



The food of the Goosander consists in fish and amphibious 

 reptiles. 



The nest of the Goosander is found among stones by the 

 edge of the water, under shelter of bushes, and in hollow 

 trees: the eggs are from ten to fourteen in number. As 

 soon as the young are hatched, the parent bird leads them to 

 the water ; and, if they happen to be hatched in the hollow of 

 a tree, she carries them one by one in her beak to a place 

 of safety, and instructs them in swimming and obtaining 

 their food, &c. Where the eggs can be taken from the 

 bird as she deposits them, leaving only one in the nest, 

 the number thus produced has, in some instances, amounted 

 to thirty and more. 



The measurements of the adult male are nearly twenty- 

 seven inches in length ; the wing, from the carpus to the tip, 

 eleven inches. 



The plumage of this bird is as follows : the entire head 

 and upper part of the neck black, glossed with green, having 

 a crest on the head, which is common to all Mergansers. 

 The lower part of the neck, and all the under parts, pale 

 salmon-yellow ; the upper part of the back and scapulars 

 black ; the lower part of the back, upper tail-coverts and 

 tail, decided grey ; the wing-coverts all white ; secondaries 

 and tertials white, bordered with black ; quill-feathers dusky 

 black ; some of the scapulars that cover the lesser wing- 

 coverts are pale salmon-colour like the under parts. The 

 beak is bright red ; the upper mandible edged with black ; 



