9 6 British Diving Ducks 
subsequent search discloses seven eggs of this bird, which only seldom occurs here. On April 12 
I happened to be on a tour on the Schwieloch Lake. A fisherman, steering his boat to the shore, goes up 
to an oak standing near and watches it carefully, and this strikes me as very strange. My question as 
to why he watched the tree so carefully is answered by his saying that it contains the nest of a " tree- 
duck," and that he would climb up to it. I thought it more advisable to get there first, and to search for 
the nest myself, and threw a long line over a branch of the tree, and had myself pulled up by my 
companion. The nest contains only twelve absolutely fresh eggs, which I let down, and which my com- 
panion packed in my case, a proceeding which the fisherman watched speechless with amazement ' (W. R., 
Osthavelland). ' On March 29 a woodcutter, who was repairing a park-paling early one morning, told 
me that a Goosander had flown into a hollow oak and had not reappeared. As the season of the year 
still seemed to me very early, I had the tree climbed for the first time in the Easter holidays (April 10), 
and to my surprise there were found there thirteen eggs in an advanced stage of incubation, so there was 
not the smallest doubt that the sitting was already complete as early as March 29, though this had never 
occurred here before earlier than April 10. I now went to another old oak in which a Merganser-nest 
was found every year, but here too there were eleven eggs already much incubated, and of these it could 
with certainty be assumed that they had all been laid in March' (R., Angermiinde). 
" The Goosander breeds regularly in Silesia only in a few places, and is supposed to be nowhere 
very frequent [J.f. O., 1891, p. 199). 
" Wustnei and Clodius {Vogel Mecklenburgs, p. 305) say : 'The bird begins early with the breeding 
business. We generally found eggs at the middle and end of April, and fledged young as early as June 
24 and July 3.' " 
In Finland, Scandinavia, Lapland, and Iceland the Goosander breeds later, and full 
clutches are not laid till the middle of May. In Finland Palmen gives the date from the 
middle of May to the middle of June. In Scandinavia and Lapland it is said to prefer to 
nest in boxes hung out for the purpose by the peasants. These have one entrance, and it 
is said that by a systematic taking of the eggs the female may be induced to lay a very- 
large number. 
Naumann {Vogel Mitteleuropas, x. p. 297) vi^rites as follows on the subject: 
" This species goes preferably and more than other birds of the duck family into the boxes 
prepared for them to nest in, made of a piece of a hollowed-out branch of a tree hung up at some height 
on trees standing near the water, in order that they may breed there. These boxes are in general use 
amongst the Karels, who live on the Finland side of the upper Gulf of Bothnia, and in addition to the 
opening for the entrance and egress of the bird, these have also a larger aperture for getting out the eggs, 
which is usually closed with a trap-door, and is only opened when the nest is searched." 
Whilst the usual nesting sites are hollows in trees or rocks, or holes in banks, or 
cavities in the peat, generally hidden by some vegetation, the female Goosander is said, but 
on somewhat dubious authority, to nest occasionally on the tops of willow stumps, and even 
in the deserted nests of birds of prey and crows. The nest rather resembles that of the 
Common Wild Duck, being composed of twigs, dried grass, and vegetation, leaves, &c., all 
woven together and lined with down during the time the bird is sitting. 
The female Goosander usually lays from seven to twelve creamy-white eggs, considerably 
larger than those of the Red-breasted Merganser, but if first clutches are removed, leaving 
an egg or two in the nest, she will lay as many as thirty to forty eggs. 
Incubation is performed by the female alone, and about the time of hatching she will 
sit very close, and if disturbed will leave with great reluctance. I disturbed a female 
Goosander off her nest in a hole in the lava in Iceland, and she went flapping around over 
the tundra with raised crest and repeated cries of " Karr-karr." She did not actually make 
