THE MERGANSERS. 
59 
reddish-brown. Total length, 27 inches; culmen, 2-3; wing, 
rr 2 ; tail, 4-2 ; tarsus, 2’o. 
Adult Female. — Different from the male. Above slaty-grey. 
With dusky-blackish shaft-stripes to the feathers, the grey ex- 
tending up the hind-neck, the head, crest, and upper neck 
being rufous, rather browner on the crown ; the chin and 
upper throat white ; the under surface of the body from the 
lower throat downwards white, washed with slaty-grey on the 
sides of the body, the flank-feathers being mottled with grey 
bars; wing-coverts grey, like the back; the greater coverts 
bpped with white, before which is a sub-terminal shade of 
black ; quills as in the male, but the secondaries white with a 
concealed dusky base, the inner secondaries grey, like the 
back ; Rail dark slaty-grey ; bill and feet coloured as in the 
male, but rather duller. Total length, 24 inches; culmen, rp; 
wing, 9-45 tail, 3-8; tarsus, i"j. 
Young Males. — Resemble the old females, but may generally 
be distinguished by the appearance of a few black feathers on 
die white chin or on the lower throat. One specimen in the 
diitish Museum shows distinct traces of wavy vermiculations 
On the flank-feathers. 
Kange in Great Britain. — This species is chiefly a winter visitor 
m the coasts of the British Islands. It breeds, however, in the 
Highlands of Scotland. In Ireland, as in most parts of England, 
It is only noted as a winter visitor. 
Range outside the British Islands. — The Goosander is a Palae- 
2 rctic species, and breeds in the north of Europe through 
biberia to the Pacific, nesting in suitable localities even in 
Gentral Europe and in the Ural and Volga districts, while it 
IS also found breeding in certain parts of Switzerland. In 
Winter it visits most of the Atlantic coasts of Europe, the 
* mediterranean, and the inland ivaters of South-eastern Europe 
and the Caspian. At the same season it wanders to Japan 
and China. In North America it is represented by an allied 
^lecies, Jf. amcricanus (Cass.), while the Goosander of 
Central Asia and the Himalayas is considered by Count 
ahadori to be a di.stinct species, M. comatus. This is a 
smaller bird, with a prominent crest formed of the long and 
