The Goosander 97 
for the water, which was at some distance, for some time, but I saw her return to the nest 
as soon as I walked away from it. 
Naumann thinks that it is very difficult for the young Goosanders to climb out of 
the deep cavities in which they are hatched, and states that if they have been hatched in a 
high tree far from the water, the mother carries them there one by one. E. Hartert com- 
menting on this, practically agrees with the above-named naturalist, but admits that the 
young ducks often descend to the ground by jumping. He says that he has seen young 
ducks "carried in the beak in E. Prussia." In support of the idea that the female Goos- 
ander will transport her young to the water, he quotes Oswin Lee (Among British Birds in 
their Nesting Haunts), who states that he saw a female Goosander carry down nine young 
ones out of the nest, and that she " carried them partly in her beak, partly between the beak 
and the breast." 
I think that young Goosanders, which are almost as active as mice, are capable of 
climbing out of any hole where the sides are rough, and then jump to the ground and 
accompany the mother to the water, just as young Golden-Eyes, Mallard, &c., do when 
hatched in similar situations. I have never seen any duck hold a duckling in the bill unless 
the latter was sick or injured, and then she generally killed it by throwing it on the ground 
or water, and rapping it on the head with her beak. I have seen female wild ducks do this 
several times. In the social system of ducks the motto is, " Cruel only to be kind." 
Young Goosanders are extremely active, and can run over the surface of the water 
with greater activity than most young ducks, and they soon learn to dive with the 
mother, who is most assiduous in her care. The female Goosander will willingly sacrifice 
her life for her young, and often comes between a boat and her brood, as if to cover 
their retreat. When the young are threatened she rushes to and fro on the surface of 
the water, raising her crest, and uttering both a hissing as well as her harsh cry. She 
stays with her brood until they can fly, and always takes the lead in all their movements 
and education, finally leading them to the great lakes, and eventually on migration. 
When rushing down the swift rivers of Newfoundland in my canoe, I have often 
wondered at the resource or natural instinct of the broods of Goosander and their 
mothers which remain perfectly still when suddenly confronted with danger. As the little 
boat flies down a rapid, swiftly passing silent pools in the rock eddies at the sides, I 
have often turned my head and noticed a female Goosander and her nearly full-grown 
young. On a lake or open stretch of the river, knowing that concealment was impossible, 
the mother would have dashed out in the open, and either hurried by flapping along the 
surface to the middle of the lake, or in the case of the river down-stream, and so endeavour 
to escape. When suddenly confronted within a few yards in the eddies of the rapids, she 
felt that such a method of escape was useless, and with swift intuition remained perfectly 
still, each member of the brood keeping the neck held stiffly, so that the whole party looked 
like the stiff" twigs of an upturned tree. This sudden assimilation to surroundings, so 
wonderfully exhibited in the Common or Little Bittern amid the rushes, seems to be 
a natural instinct in all birds, and they often adopt it as a last resort. 
Their judgment, too, as to whether they are noticed or not is always without error. 
The slightest hostile movement on the part of the man in the canoe is always recognised, 
and then a sauve qui pe^Lt follows. Something in the colour of that upturned tree catches 
VOL. II. M 
