74 
FEMALE GOOSANDER. 
[Plate LXVIIL— Fig. 2.] 
Mergus castor^ Gmel. Syst, I, p. 545, etvar . — Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 829, Ab. 2, Dun Dwer, 
Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 420, 421. — Bewick, II, p. 231. — Montagu, Orn. Die. Sup . — Briss. 
VI, p. 236. — Le Harle femelle^ Buff. VIII, p. 272. PL Enl. 953. — Peale’s Museum, 
No. 2933. 
THIS generally measures an inch or two shorter than the 
male ; the length of the present specimen was twenty-five inches, 
extent thirty-five inches ; bill crimson on the sides, black above ; 
irides reddish ; crested head and part of the neck dark brown, 
lightest on the sides of the neck, where it inclines to a sorrel 
color ; chin and throat white ; the crest shoots out in long radiating 
flexible stripes ; upper part of the body, tail and flanks, an ashy 
slate, tinged with brown ; primaries black ; middle secondaries 
white, forming a large speculum on the wing ; greater coverts 
black, tipt for half an inch with white ; sides of the breast, from 
the sorrel colored part of the neck downwards, very pale ash, 
with broad semicircular touches of white ; belly and lower part 
of the breast a fine yellowish cream color, a distinguishing trait 
also in the male ; legs and feet rich orange. 
It is truly astonishing with what pertinacity Montagu adheres 
to the opinion that the Dun-diver is a species distinct from the 
Goosander. Had this excellent ornithologist had the same oppor- 
tunities for examining these birds that we have, he would never 
have published an opinion, which, in this quarter of the globe, 
would subject one, even from the vulgar, to the imputation of ig- 
norance. 
