SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 
403 
its finny prey, in our opinion, so strikingly characteristic as that which has 
emanated from the genius-inspired hand of the rude and self-taught Northum¬ 
brian ornithographer. 
The Goosander, Mergus merganser ,—Grand Harle, Fr. —Mergo Oca Marina 
e Mergo Dominicano, It. —Gansensager oder Taucher-Gans, G. —This species, the 
largest of the genus, is the Green-headed Goosander of Fleming (the Merganser 
of other ornithologists); and should have a Latin specific designation founded 
upon this unvarying character of the adult, male bird. The female differs from 
the male, not only in inferiority of size, in the rufous-brown colour of the head, 
neck, and crest, and less brilliant orange-red hue of bill, iris, and tarsus; but in 
the absence of those peculiarities of anatomical structure which the windpipe of 
the latter constantly exhibits. The respiratory tube of the male presents two 
enlargements previously to its termination in the bony labyrinth at what may 
be correctly termed its sternal extremity. The trachea of the female is alike 
destitute of such dilatations, and of the labyrinth. These marked differences of 
internal organization and of colouring, formerly led to the erroneous inference— 
still farther confirmed by the close resemblance which the plumage of the male, 
during the first year, exhibits to the plumage of the female—that the latter 
constituted a genus perfectly distinct from the Merganser; which hence became 
Mergus castor of the green-headed Gmelin —the Dun Diver or Sparling Fowl of 
Latham and other British ornithologists. Subsequent and more correct observa¬ 
tion has served to rectify this perplexing error, and remove another stumbling-block 
from the paths of Ornithology. The Northern regions of Europe and America 
are the native and habitual haunts of this fine bird. On the approach of Winter 
it visits, in its migration Southwards, the Northern districts of our own island, 
and, more especially, the inland waters of Germany and Holland. Fishes, the 
smaller Crustacea , and molluscous animals, constitute its principal food. The 
female is said to lay from twelve to fourteen cream-coloured eggs: but of its 
nidification little is at present known. Mr. Gould’s plate represents a male and 
female, two*thirds of the natural size, and most admirably executed. 
The Whin Chat, Saxicola rubetra , Rubetra migratoria , Blyth, — Motacilla 
rubetra , Linnaeus, — Sylvia rubetra , Latham, —Traquet Tarier, Fr. —Braun- 
kehliger Steinsehmatger, G. —A Summer-visitant of the British islands; hence 
the propriety of the specific designation migratoria , by which it is now distinguished 
from the only other British species of the genus, the Stone Chat, R. rubicola. 
It is, however, obvious that, whenever practicable, the specific name should be 
drawn, not from the habits of the bird uncognizable by the organs of touch or 
vision, but from some permanent and unerring peculiarity of exterior configuration 
or colouring, which the eye of the observer can at once discriminate. In what 
points, independently of its migratory habits, does the present subject of our 
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VOL. IV.-NO. XXXII. 
