RED-BREASTED MERGANSER.
RED-BREASTED GOOSANDER. SAWBILL. I1ARLE.
Mtrgm senator, PENNANT. MONTAGU. BEWICK.
" eris/atus, BRISSON.
" niger, GMELIN.
Merganser niger, BKISSON.
Mergus—A Diver. Senator. Sena—A saw.
THE Merganser is a common bird in Europe—in Norway, Sweden,
Lapland, Iceland, and the Ferroe Islands, as also in Holland, Germany,
Switzerland, France, and Italy. It likewise is found in Asia, in Siberia,
about Lake Baikal, and along the courses nf the larger rivers, and
eastward to Japan. In America it belongs to Greenland, the F u r
Countries, the shores of Hudson's Bay, and Newfoundland.
They frequent the coast, its bays and estuaries, and the lower parts
of rivers, namely, where they disembogue themselves into the sea, but
sometimes advance upwards, and reach inland waters, though seldom
beyond the influence of the tide. They breed, however, on fresh-water
lakes.
I n Northumberland these birds occur along the coasts, Holy Island
and the Fern Islands being favourite localities; also on the shores of
Durham.
I n Lincolnshire the Rev. "William Waldo Cooper shot one in the
Ancholme, in the winter of 1853-4. In Northamptonshire the species
has occurred on the River Nene. In Suffolk one near Ipswich, as T .
J. Wilkinson, Esq., of Walsham Hall, has written me word. In the
adjoining county of Norfolk one, a male, an adult bird, was seen at
.Lowestoft, in the third week of J u l y , 1852, as recorded by J . H . Gurney,
Esq., of Easton, in the * Zoologist,' page 3599. In the usual way it is
also seen in those parts in the winter months, but old males are seldom
obtained except in severe seasons. Many specimens were procured along
the coast of Essex and the two last-named counties in the winter of