By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



165 



they can swim and dive and fly with great quickness, but from 

 the backward position of their legs, are awkward on shore. I am 

 again indebted to Mr. Marsh for the information that the Smew 

 Merganser has been killed in Wiltshire. 



"Red Breasted Merganser." (Mergus Serrator). The form of 

 beak at once proclaims that the habits of all the species of Mer- 

 gansers are identical. This is a more common bird than that last 

 described, but is seldom found inland. I have however positive 

 evidence of the occurrence of one fine specimen which Lord Nelson 

 pointed out to me in his collection, and which his Lordship told 

 me was killed in his water on the Avon, by the Rev. J. N. Neate 

 in December, 1864 : and of another killed by Mr. Heath at 

 Quemerford near Calne, about ten or twelve years ago. 



"Goosander." (Mergus merganser). This is the largest species of 

 the genus, and perhaps the most common, though none of this 

 little group of birds are very plentiful on our coasts : and very 

 seldom does a straggler from such truly oceanic ducks penetrate 

 so far as our inland county. The Rev. George Marsh however 

 had a pair in his collection which were killed in Wiltshire on the 

 river Avon in February 1838 ; and I have a more recent notice, 

 which I extract from the Zoologist, 1 of its occurrence at Clarendon 

 Park, Salisbury, where the bailiff picked up a fine male specimen 

 quite dead on the banks of the lake in February, 1867, its mouth, 

 full of fresh-water weeds. When alive this species shows a most 

 delicate rose colour on its neck and breast, which (as in the case of 

 Pastor roseus and several other species) fades very quickly after 

 death. A magnificent specimen which I once procured from a 

 Norfolk fenman as he was returning with his spoil, and which quite 

 glowed with a rich rosy hue, soon after faded (to my intense disgust,) 

 to a dingy smoke colour, and has now no trace of its former 

 beauty. It is known on some coasts as the " Sawbill," a nick-name 

 which it sometimes shares, as it ought to do, with both its congeners. 



COLYMBIME (The Livers). 

 This very remarkable family of Diving birds shows a most com- 

 plete structure, and a general formation thoroughly adapted to their 

 submerged habits, for all the species which comprise it pass a 



1 Second Series, vol. for 1867, p. 709. 

 VOL XII. — NO. XXXV. 0 



