302 THE GOOSANDER OR MERGANSER. 
surface before they get clear of it ; and many more (unless when 
rising against a strong wind) before they get up about ten or 
fifteen yards, at which height they commonly fly up stream. 
When once on the wing their flight is strong and fairly rapid, 
though not to compare with that of the Smew. 
The great bulk of their food is fish, good-sized ones, often 
five and six inches long, and, as inthe case of the Smew, there are 
always plenty of pebbles in their gizzards. I have found a kind 
of crayfish and water-insects in some I have examined ; but 
mostly they had fed only on fishes from three to six, or nearly 
six inches in length. 
Of course they catch these entirely by diving, and while at 
times where there has been a good-sized party, I have seen them 
all disappear ez masse. I have more often seen several diving 
quite independently of each other, and it seemed to me some 
keeping watch while the others dived. ; 
They are very wary birds, and in large rivers (I never my- 
self saw them on any lake) scarcely approachable ; and yet, if 
you are drifting down in a boat trolling and apparently paying 
no attention to them, they will often fly over within easy shot, 
until, at any rate, you have thus fired at them once or twice. 
In the interior, in comparatively narrow streams, it is often easy 
to stalk them ; and when thus suddenly surprised at close quarters, 
they emit a harsh croaking cry, rarely heard at other times, which 
rings out loudly, even amidst the roar of the rushing waters. 
Only once or twice have I tried to eat them. They are generally 
very fat, and the fat is abominably fishy and rank ; but if they 
are skinned, soaked in two or three waters, and then stewed 
with onions and a little Worcester sauce, they will furnish 
an abundant meal to a hungry man—a thing worth knowing, as 
one occasionally gets them on a blank day in places where 
nothing is to be got within fifty miles, and when you cannot 
afford to kill one of the baggage sheep. However let no one 
try to eat them when anything better is to be got, as only 
necessity renders them tolerable. 
AS VET no one seems to have taken their eggs within our limits, 
though they breed in numbers, in our larger rivers, at elevations 
of 10,000 feet and upwards (and perhaps even lower), and in 
some of the elevated lakes, as the young, from nestlings to nearly 
fully-fledged birds, have been occasionally shot and caught, in 
such places between the middle of June and the end of July. 
I do not know for certain how long they incubate, but I 
should guess that with us they lay from about the last week in 
April to the middle of May, but some may lay earlier and later 
according to elevation. 
“The nest, according to Mr. Selby,” to quote Yarrell, “is 
constructed near to the edge of the water, of a mass of grass, 
roots, and other materials, mixed and lined with down. It is 
