io8 British Diving Ducks 
equalled by the Smew. In very shallow water they often all work together and create such 
a commotion that the whole surface boils and the fish must become much confused and 
so fall an easy prey. On coming to the surface they adopt an easy swinging movement 
with the head and neck moving at each stroke of the feet, and stay only a few seconds 
on the surface before diving again. I have watched both Goosanders and Red-breasted 
Mergansers ''cornering" small trout and par in water so shallow that they did not need 
to dive at all but kept darting here and there with only their necks and heads under water. 
When fishing this species does not keep nearly such a sharp look-out as the Goosander, 
and it is often possible by careful stalking to get within a few yards of a feeding party 
by judicious advances. I have more than once got within ten yards of a flock of these 
birds and watched their movements in the water from behind some sheltering bush, and 
though they are sharp enough to detect any movement they are not nearly so suspicious 
as their larger cousins, who will often suddenly swim out from a shallow for no apparent 
reason, and remain intently on the qui vive for several minutes before returning to the busi- 
ness of fishing. All Mergansers swallow the fish as they capture them. They are adept 
at exploring the nooks and crannies amongst the rocks, and the hiding-places of fish under 
large and small stones, continually poking with their bills amid holes and dark places. 
If a fish is started they drive it before them, turning rapidly with all its movements, 
and as they hunt in companies, pass it backwards and forwards to one another until 
it is captured. If droves of small fry are encountered, they will hunt them into the 
shallows and devour them, until their enormous appetites are satisfied. They often 
adopt the half-circle in so doing, after the manner of certain species of Cormorant, but 
each follows its own prey. 
If fish are not very plentiful, Red-breasted Mergansers dive together, and each takes a 
line of its own, so that the flock may rise to the surface widely separated. If this is the 
case they at once swim together again before proceeding to fresh operations. Fish are 
captured by oblique or horizontal movements on the part of the Mergansers, and they do 
not go to the bottom or stay for any time in one place as so many of the true diving 
ducks do. 
Various kinds of fish are the principal food of the Red-breasted Merganser. In 
summer they take enormous numbers of small trout and salmon, an inch or two in length, 
and in fresh waters they also eat roach, dace, &c. An adult male killed on a backwater 
on the Tay was full of small pike, so that some degree of virtue, from the fisherman's point 
of view, may be attributed to this otherwise destructive bird. In fact, I think they will 
catch and eat almost any kind of small fish on fresh and salt waters. In the Orkneys I 
found they were very partial to sand-eels and small coal-fish. In the winter I have never 
seen them devour anything but fish, but in summer they undoubtedly eat crabs, cock- 
chafers, dragon-fly larvae, caterpillars, earthworms, &c. They do not, however, eat any 
vegetable matter. I have heard sportsmen say that often their appetites are so voracious 
that some of their food must be disgorged before they were able to fly. On alighting at a 
new feeding ground the Red-breasted Merganser often dips his head and neck under water 
to look about for food before diving. Their flight is very swift, the wings being beaten 
with unusual rapidity. The neck and head is held in a straight horizontal line with 
the crest depressed. It is usually performed higher in the air than with the Goosander, 
