310 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 



Mergus serrator, L. 



With us the Merganser is more of a seafaring duck than the 

 Goosander. A few individuals always frequent the waters of 

 the English Solway from October to April, and may often be 

 seen flighting down from the estuary of the "Wampool to the 

 open sea west of Mary port. In July 1890 Mr. Nicol saw a 

 half-grown brood of Mergansers swimming in the Waver with 

 their parents, but the party had probably crossed over to us 

 from the Scottish Solway. I have seen some very handsome 

 full-dressed males which had been procured off Carnforth, 

 Flookburgh, Arnside, and Ravenglass in the spring of the 

 year : but the majority of those seen on our coast are attired 

 in female dress. This Merganser is comparatively rare in the 

 interior of Lakeland ; although immature birds have been 

 obtained on Windermere Lake. 



SMEW. 



Mergus albellus, L. 



Dr. Gough in 1861 recorded the Smew as an occasional 

 visitant to Lyth moss, a large and wet ' flow ' almost adjoining 

 Eoulshaw, and therefore close to the Kent estuary. In January 

 1891 two adult drakes were seen on the same river near 

 Levens. Mr. Todd, a neighbouring farmer, shot one of them 

 dead. He wounded its companion, but when about to secure 

 it he fell on the ice, and the crippled bird dived away and was 

 never seen again. The bird secured is a very handsome drake, 

 one of the most perfect that I have seen. About the same 

 time that the Smews visited the Kent, an immature female was 

 shot in the Rusland valley. Mr. C. F. Archibald reports: 

 'Richard Holme shot it in the pool on January 17, 1891. It 

 was alone. Richard " did not see it dive, but there was no 

 doubt but what it had been, no doubt whatever • it got up hoful 

 quick and flew tremendous sharp, it did for sure." ' Mr. W. 

 Duckworth has examined a female and an adult male believed 

 to have been shot near Ulverston. I have not been able to 



