THE MERGANSER — GOOSANDER. 209 



Mergansers ( as> ) came many, with fish in their 



throat, 

 By gluttony prompted their bodies to bloat. 



as the forerunner or servant of the cuckoo ; the Swedes regard 

 it in the same light ; in the midland countries of England the 

 common people call it the Cuckoo's Maiden." Is this one of the 

 birds to which I have alluded as sometimes seen accompanying 

 the cuckoo ? See the note on the cuckoo. 

 " In sober brown 

 Drest, but with nature's tenderest pencil touch'd, 

 The wryneck her monotonous complaint 

 Continues ; harbinger of her who doom'd 

 Never the sympathetic joy to know 

 That warms the mother cowering o'er her young, 

 A stranger robs, and to that stranger's love 

 Her egg commits unnatural." 



Gisborne's Walks in a Forest. 



(* 9 ) Order, Anseres, (Linn.) Merganser, Goosander, 

 Smew, Dun Diver, &c. 



The genus Mergus, (Linn.) or Merganser, consists of six or 

 more species, five of which are common to this country, the rest 

 to Europe and America. They have a toothed, slender, cylin- 

 drical bill, hooked at the point ; nostrils small oval ; feet four- 

 toed, three before palmate; hind toe furnished with a fin. 

 Most of the species are of a middle size, between that of a 

 goose and a duck. They swallow with voracity fishes that are 

 too large to enter entire into the stomach, and hence, while one 

 end is digesting, the other often remains in the throat. They 

 are said to be the most destructive of all birds which plunder 

 the waters; their flesh is very indifferent food. The following 

 are the chief : 



The Merganser, or Goosander, is white, subcrested ; head, 



