484 GOOSANDER. 



form and serratures of its bill. The genus is characterised as 

 follows : — " Bill, toothed, slender, cylindrical, hooked at the 

 point ; nostrils, small, oval, placed in the middle of the bill ; 

 feet, four-toed, the outer toe longest." Naturalists have de- 

 nominated it merganser. In this country, the birds composing 

 this genus are generally known by the name of fisherman, or 

 fisher-ducks. The whole number of known species amount 

 to only nine or ten, dispersed through various quarters of 

 the world ; of these, four species, of which the present is the 

 largest, are known to inhabit the United States. 



From the common habit of these birds in feeding almost 

 entirely on fin and shell-fish, their flesh is held in little esti- 

 mation, being often lean and rancid, both smelling and tast- 

 ing strongly of fish ; but such are the various peculiarities of 

 tastes, that persons are not wanting who pretend to consider 

 them capital meat. 



The goosander, called by some the water-pheasant, and by 

 others the sheldrake, fisherman, diver, &c. is a winter inhabi- 

 tant only of the sea-shores, fresh-water lakes, and rivers of 

 the United States. They usually associate in small parties 

 of six or eight, and are almost continually diving in search 

 of food. In the month of April they disappear, and return 

 again early in November. Of their particular place and 

 manner of breeding we have no account. Mr Pennant ob- 

 serves, that they continue the whole year in the Orkneys ; 

 and have been shot in the Hebrides, or Western Islands of 

 Scotland, in summer. They are also found in Iceland and 

 Greenland, and are said to breed there ; some asserting that 

 they build on trees ; others, that they make their nests among 

 the rocks. 



The male of this species is twenty-six inches in length, and 

 three feet three inches in extent ; the bill, three inches long, 



seven trout, about four or five inches in length, from the stomach of a 

 female. 



In Hudson's Bay (according to Hearne) they are called sheldrakes ; 

 the name by which they are also distinguished by the common people 

 in all the rivers in the south of Scotland. — Ed. 



