ANATIDjE. 461 



this state as the pure breeding plumage ; but individuals, coloured like the one killed on the 

 Saskatchewan are often seen at the breeding stations*. 



Winter plumage of the male. — Head, neck, and scapulars, white ; cheeks and chin ash- 

 coloured ; lateral neck stripe chestnut-brown. Legs yellowish. In other respects like the 

 above. 



Mature female, killed May 25, lat. 65^°. — Upper plumage and sides of the breast pale 

 liver-brown, with dark centres ; the wing coverts, scapulars, and hinder parts, mostly edged 

 with white. Top of the head blackish-brown ; its sides anteriorly broccoli-brown: ears and 

 base of the neck below clove-brown. A spot at the base of the bill and a stripe behind the 

 eye white. Throat and collar ash-grey. Tail feathers brownish-grey, edged with white, 

 short, and worn. 









Dimensions 

















Of the male. 













Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. Lin. 



Length, total . . 



. 26 







Length of bill to rictus 



. 1 



7 



Length of middle nail 



• 3£ 



,, of tail . 



. 10 







„ of tarsus . . 



1 



3 



„ of outer toe 



2 



„ of wing 



. 8 



6 



„ of middle toe 



. 1 



11 



,, of its nail 



. 2| 



,, of bill above 



1 















— R. 



[220.] 1. Mergus merganser. (Linn.) The Goosander. 



Sub-tamily, Merganinae, Swains. Genus, Mergus, Linn. 

 Goosander {Mergus merganser). Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 537, No. 465. 



Wils., viii., p. 68, pi. 68, f. 1 and 2. 

 Grand Harle (Mergus merganser). Temm., ii., p. 881. 

 Mergus merganser. Bonap. Syn., p. 397, No. 347. 

 Seek. Cree Indians. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a male, killed on the Saskatchewan. 



Colour. — Head and adjoining half of the neck deep blackish-green ; rest of the neck, all 

 the lesser coverts but the humeral ones, the distal halves of the greater coverts, the lesser 

 quills, exterior scapulars, and whole under plumage, rich buff-orange (which fades to white 

 after the specimen has been exposed for a few months to the light). Fore part of the back, 

 longer scapulars, humeral wing coverts, bastard wing, bases of the greater coverts, narrow 

 borders of the tertiaries, and fourteen exterior quill feathers, velvet-black (changing to brown 

 before moulting). Hinder part of the back, tail coverts, and tail, bluish-grey, deepening 



• Mr. Edwards, surgeon of the Fury on Sir Edward Parry's second voyage, describes the Long-tailed Ducks killed 

 on Melville Peninsula, between the 1st and 25th June, as follows : — " They had all a dark, silky, chestnut-brown 

 patch on the side of the neck ; a mixture of white in the black stripe from the bill to the crown ; the crown and nape 

 either entirely white, or mixed with black ; scapulars and upper tail coverts edged with white ; a broad white collar 

 round the lower part of the neck, in some individuals tipped with black or brown ; occasionally a white baDd on the 

 breast. The colour of the belt on the bill varied from rose-red to violet." — R. 



