202 MERGANSER. 



from two birds in the plumage of the Dun Diver having been sent 

 to me in January 1789, shot in Dartford Marshes, Kent ; in one of 

 them the ovary was clustered with eggs, and the trachea of equal 

 size from beginning to end ; the other with a double enlargement, 

 as in the complete Goosander, with the other internal marks of the 

 sex complete. The first of these was probably a perfect female, 

 and weighed more than two pounds and three quarters ; the length 

 twenty-seven inches; breadth twenty-three. The other weighed only 

 fourteen ounces; and the length twenty-three inches ; an incomplete 

 male. The complete male Goosander is sometimes seen with a 

 yellowish rose-coloured breast; perhaps a mark of extreme comple- 

 tion, and only seen in the breeding season. 



The Goosander seems to prefer the more northern situations; not 

 being seen southward except in severe seasons ; it continues the 

 whole year in the Orknies, and has been shot in the Hebrides;* is 

 not uncommon on the Continent of Europe, and Asia, but chiefly in 

 the north; found also in Iceland, and Greenland, and breeds there. 

 It makes a slovenly kind of nest, either in a hollow tree, or under 

 a bush, and sometimes among the rocks; lays twelve or fourteen 

 whitish eggs, and the young are hatched in a month. It is also 

 said to breed upon the Islands of the Shannon, near Killaloe, in 

 Ireland. It is frequent in America, found about New York, in 

 winter, from whence it retires in April, probably to Hudson's Bay;f 

 and, if the same which is called Fisherman's Duck, is also found in 

 Carolina. $ 



2— IMPERIAL MERGANSER. 



Mergus imperialis, Ltd. Orn. ii. 829. Gm. Lin. i. 547. Cet. uc. Sard. 326. 

 Imperial Merganser, Gen. St/n. Sup. ii. 337. 



SIZE and shape of a Goose. Bill rufous white; tongue ciliated; 

 the head not crested ; general colour of the plumage varied with 



* Br. Zool. Arct. Zool. f Arct. Zoo/. f Lawson's Carol, p. 150. 



