Merganser, the females of the two species being very
similar. The belief that it bred on some of the lochs of
the Highlands was not, however, unfounded, although actual
proof was not obtained until 1871, when undoubted eggs
were sent to Mr. Harvie-Brown by a gamekeeper in Perthshire,
the down and a feather from the hollow tree where the
nest was placed, being also procured. During succeeding
years corroborative evidence has been obtained respecting
Perthshire; and Mr. E. Booth has figured in his ‘ Rough
Notes ’ four voung birds which had been watched until they
were seven weeks old, “ hatched in one of the large pine-
forests that stretch for miles along the mountain sides m
the Northern Highlands.” There is testimony that the
species nests, or has done so, in Sutherlandshire, Argyllshire,
and elsewhere ; on which point many interesting details
will be found in a paper by Mr. J . Hamilton Buchanan,
published in the Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society
of Edinburgh, vol. v. p. 189.
To Ireland the Goosander is, as a rule, a somewhat rare
winter visitor, but during the severe January of 1881 more
were shot, according to Sir R. Payne-Gallwey, than had ever
been known before; as many as eight together being seen
on the Blackwater, near Cappoquin. It has never been
suspected of nesting in any part of that island.
The Goosander is of very rare occurrence in the Faeroes,
but it breeds and is said to be resident in Iceland ; although
it has not as yet been taken in Greenland. It is well known
in Norway; Nilsson says it is not uncommon on the lakes
and rivers of Sweden ; and Dann states that it is widely
dispersed from Scona to Lapland, as far as the wooded districts
extend, and that it breeds at Gellivara. Linnaeus, in
his Tour in Lapland, describes a male Goosander which had
been caught in a net set for pike, near Lycksele ; and Acerbi
in his Travels, speaking of the 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 reeds and rushes, chooses to lay her eggs in the trunk
of an old tree, in which time or the hand of man has made
GOOSANDER. 491
such an excavation as she can conveniently enter. The
person that waylays the bird for her eggs, 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 returns, and, finding but a single egg, lays two or three
more; she is again robbed as before-—but a few are left at
last for the increase of her family. As soon as the eggs are
hatched, the mother takes the chicks gently in her bill,
carries and lays them dowyn at the foot of the tree, where
she teaches them the way to the river, in which they instantly
swim with an astonishing facility.”
In Finland and the northern provinces of Russia this
species is common throughout the summer, and its breeding
range appears to extend to the Ural and the Central Volga
districts. Its nest has been taken in Northern Germany;
and in Denmark, according to Mr. Benzon, it breeds sparingly,
in hollow trees, in all the provinces where the forest
is close to the water. In winter it is found on the coasts
and inland waters of the Continent so long as they remain
unfrozen ; its migrations extending to the south of Spain,
and to North-west Africa. It is, however, rare in the
Mediterranean, although not uncommon in the Bosphorus
and the Black Sea. Eastward it is found across Siberia
and Central Asia, visiting Japan and China in winter. It
is known to breed on the elevated lakes of the great Asian
ranges of mountains up to 10,000 feet, and Mr. Hume
thinks it probable that in the treeless districts of the
Himalayas—where the young, from nestlings to nearly fully
fledged birds, have been taken—this species avails itself of
holes in the rocks near the water for its nests, after the
manner of the Ruddy Sheld-duck. In winter its range
southward extends to about 22° N. lat.
In North America is found a sub-species, Mergus merganser
americanus, adult males of which have the black at the
base of the greater wing-coverts exposed, so as to form a
very distinct band about half way across the wing, while