480 OBSEHVATIONS ON SOME SPECIES 
of the wing-coverts is becoming apparent, that is, the 
feathers on these parts are changing from lead-colouF to 
white *. 
The same circumstance has been observed by Latham 
and Montagu in the plumage of the Mergus minutuSy or 
little Merganser,, so long regarded as a distinct species, but 
now ascertained to be the female of the Mergus albelhts, or 
Smew. Both sexes occurring in the plumage of the female, 
it was natural enough to suppose that they constituted a 
species, and that the real adult male was distinct. In like 
manner, and from the same cause, the error has arisen in 
regard to the Dundiver and Goosander, although the ar- 
ejuments in the one case are no better founded than in tlie 
other. I therefore conceive this latter objection to be as 
invahd as the former. 
In conclusion, I may ask, if the Dundiver is not the 
fbmale of the Goosander, where are we to seek for it? 
Although the latter is not an abundant species,, it is by no 
means, in Scotland at least, particularly rare ; and, how 
are we to account for the fact, that we have still to discover 
the female of a bird, the male of which exists in every cabL- 
• The leading distinctions between the plumage of the Goosander and 
Dundiver are as follows. In the former, the head and neck are glossy 
greenish-black, the scapularies are black, and the wing-coverts are white ; 
in the latter, the head and neck are ferruginous, and the scapularies and 
wing-coverts lead-colour. Now, the specimen above referred to, shev/s, in 
each of these points, a combination of the plumage of the two sexes; the 
head being of a sooty brown, the neck ferruginous and black, the scapularies 
black and lead-colour, and the wing-coverts lead-colour and white. In its 
prevailing plumage it bears a greater resemblance to the Dundiver than to 
the Goosander, but its dimensions are those of a full-sized Goosander. It 
belonged to the collection of the late Captain George Falconar of the Scots 
Greys, recently added to the Edinburgh Museum. 
