THE RED-BREASTED GOOSANDER. 
241 
on the top of a bed of all the dead weeds which the bird can gather 
in the neighbourhood. Properly speaking, the real nest, however, is 
not larger than that of the Dusky Duck, and is rather neatly formed 
externally of fibrous roots, and lined round the edges with the down 
of the bird. The interior is about seven and a half inches in 
diameter, and four inches in depth. There are seldom more than 
seven or eight eggs, which measure two inches and seven-eighths in 
length, by two inches in breadth, are of an elliptical form, being 
nearly equally rounded at both ends, smooth, and of a uniform dull 
cream colour.' 
The next species, the Harle, or Earl Duck, as some term 
it, is inferior in size to the former, seldom measuring more 
than twenty-four inches in length; like its congener, it 
has a dark glossy green head and upper neck, and a black 
and grey back and sides ; but the abdomen is pure white, 
and the fore part of the neck is light red, with dusky 
streaks. Like all the Mergansers, it has the feathers of the 
head elongated into a crest, which is not commonly erected ; 
two separate tufts are longer than the rest. The naturalist 
we have so often quoted will furnish us with a graphic 
description of the habits of the bird : — 
The summer residence of this species (says Macgillivray) is in the 
northern parts of both continents, from the colder temperate regions 
to the border of the polar ice. In winter it advances southward, in 
America as far as the Gulf of Mexico, and in Europe to the coasts of 
France, as well as to Switzerland and Italy. It seems, therefore, 
somewhat strange that in England it is of rare occurrence at that 
season in the southern districts, while on the friths and lakes of 
Scotland it is not uncommon. In the latter country it is generally 
dispersed, but in summer is not met with south of the Moray Frith 
on the eastern side, or to that of the Clyde on the western. In 
winter it betakes itself chiefly to streams and lakes, resorting to 
the sea when they are frozen, and in summer it prefers the same 
situations, although it may often be seen on the sea. In the outer 
Hebrides, in March, April, and part of May, and again in autumn, I 
have seen very large flocks in the small sandy bays, fishing day after 
day for sand-eels. They sit in the water much in the manner of the 
Cormorants, but without sinking so deep, unless when alarmed, and 
advance with great speed. It is a pleasant occupation to an idle 
scholar or wandering ornithologist to watch one of these flocks as it 
sweeps along the shores. I have many times engaged in it, both 
with the desire of shooting some of them, and of studying their 
manners, which are very graceful. You may suppose us to be jammed 
into the crack of a rock, with our hats off, and we peeping cunningly 
Q 
