Cambridge, Mass* 
/fdp- engaged in fishing. I watched some of them dive dozens of times and 
in nearly every instance saw beyond the possibility of mistake (I was 
using my glasses and the distance did not exceed two hundred yards) 
that they half opened their wings just before taking the downward 
plunge. That this was the rule and not the exception on this occasion 
I can most positively assert. Indeed the wings were invariably separ¬ 
ated from the sides and sometimes rather widely so whenever I saw 
them plainly just as the birds disappeared. 
One pair of Gooseanders nearer us them were any of the 
others and at a distance of perhaps one hundred ahd fifty yards acted 
for a time in a singular manner. At first I noticed only the drake ? a 
fine big fellow with snowy white sides and bottle-green head. He was 
swimming slowly close about dh inconspicuous object that looked like 
a piece of bark or driftwood. On scrutinizing it clp&e-ly however I 
/V 
soon made out that it was a female Gooseander floating perdectly 
motionless and so deeply immersed only the line of the beak showed 
above the surface. tt A dead bird without doubt“ I said to my compan¬ 
ion. For at least three minutes she remained thus and the drake con¬ 
tinued to circle around her pecking at her occasionally very gently 
Then of a sudden the water was wiilently agitated and a brown-crested 
