birds, when breeding-time is oyer, part company, and lose'
acquaintance.” The nest, according to Mr. Selby, is constructed
“ near to the edge of the water, of a mass of grass,
roots, and other materials, mixed and lined with down,. It
is placed sometimes among stbhes, sometimes in long grass,-
or under the cover of bushes, and, when the locality affords
them, in the stumps or hollows of decayed'trees.” The eggs
are of a uniform buff-coloured white, measuring' two inches
and a half in length, by one inch and eight li-nés in breadth.
Six or seven young are considered a large brood, and the
careful mother, has. been seen/like the Wild Duck, to carry
some of her offspring, occasionally, on her bach when in the
watér, as the parent Swan is kno'wnto. do. -
Mr. Hewitson, in his notes "on the ornithology of Norway,
says, “ of the Goosander we- frequently observed'small flocks,
almost^ entirely male birds, accompanied rarely-by onejor
two females. The females must have been breeding'somewhere
in the neighbourhood, but'ft^was in vain that we’made
every search for the eggs. Upon- enquiry of the; best, informed
people,'we were told that the females are never seen
during the summer,* nor until (accompanied hyphens?young
ones,) the^jbia-lhe male-birds in the-suttunnJ; i
: Profèssor Nilsson says 'the Goosander- is not- uncommon
on the lakes and fivers of Sweden; and Mr. Dann tells me
that it is widely dispersed from Scona'.to Lapland-, as rfair
as the woody districts extend"; and that if brbëds at- Gelli-
vara. Linnens, in his; toiir in Lapland, describes - a mall
Goosander which had been caught in a net.set for pike,'near
Lycksele; and Acerb! in bis travels,* when; (to th e banks
of a river near Kardis, in Lapland, says, “ the Mergus merganser,
instead of building a small nest, like the ducks; on
the banks, or among* the-feeds and rushes,-, chooses to* lay
her eggs in the trunk of. an old tree-, in which time, or "the
hand of man, has made such an excavation as she' can. cpm
-veniently enter. ' The person that way-lays the bird for her
e g g s , places against a fir or pine tree somewhere near the
bank of the river, a. decayed trunk, with a hole in its middle ;
the bird enters and lays her eggs in i t : presently the peasant
comes, and takes away the; eggs, leaving, however, one or
two. The bird return?, and, finding but a single egg, lays
-two or three more,- which the man purloins in the same
-manner; the bird still returns* and, as if she had forgot
the 'eggs she had laid, proceeds- once. more; to complete the
number she intended, ■ She is defrauded, of hex eggs as
before, and continues-1 repeating the. same process four or
five-;times?,".when -the man,Who has by this time gathered
perhaps 1 aB j t e fc oLeg^' from the, same'nest, suffers her to
lay- the' fast for the .increase; of her family. As ,sbon. as the
_tggs>.are hatched, the mother-takes the chicks gently in her
bill, carrif$3§and lay? them^downs at the. foot „of the tree,;
wheShhe^teaGheshfiem --the way to. the river, in which they
Instantly "s,fvkh with an .astonishing facility.”
- ~ The-;Goosanderli^well. known -in Russia, and frequents
the large inland waters, of Germany;; it is, found also in
winter in Holland, France, .Switzerland, .Provence, and Italy.
I t h a s .f e n observed in the vicinity of the Caucasus ; and
M. Temminck says it is found in Japan. I t is well known
t£;> the naturalists of the; United States ;■ and is found in
North America, Hudson’s Bay, Greenland, and Iceland.
In ifie adult male the bill is ^vermilion red, the superior
ridge of the upper mandible and the nail black; the hides
re d ; the head and upper part of the neck rich shining green,
with the occipital' feathers- elongated; upper part of the
back and the scapulars black ; lower part of the back, upper
, tail-coverts and taihfeathers ash-grey ; point of the wing, and
all the wing-coverts white; wing-primariel nearly black;
secondaries and tertials whiter lower part of neck in front,
and all the under surface of the body delicate reddish-buff;