in Lapland and Southern Sweden, Mr. Wolley invariably found

the Goosander breeding in holes of trees, or in artificial nest-boxes affixed to the trunks of trees by the
the use of fie species and the Golden-eye. This therefore must be regarded as its usual mode
fail. as in Iceland, that it adopts the plan of forming its nest

Mr. Alfred Newton informs me that both,

settlers for
of nidification; and it is only when trees
in the open. ae

Old Acerbi, quoted by Mr. Yarrell, states, in his
bird for her eggs places against a fir or pine tree,
the bird enters and lays her eggs in it; presently the peasant comes and takes away
The bird returns, and, finding but a single egg, lays two or three more, which
he bird again returns and, as if she had forgotten the eggs she had laid,
She is defrauded of her eggs as before, and continues

‘Travels in Lapland,’ that “ The person who waylays the
somewhere near the bank of the river, a decayed trunk

with a hole in its middle ;
the eggs, except one or two.
are purloined in the same manner, t
proceeds once more to complete the intended number.

repeating the same process four or five times, when the peasant, who has by this time gathered perhaps a score
5

of eggs from the same nest, suffers her to lay the 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 down: at the foot ‘of the tree,
where she teaches them the way to the river, in which they instantly swim with astonishing rapidity.”

This account of the Goosander would be incomplete without a word on its flight. When the bird is
hard pressed and cannot escape by diving, it readily takes wing and flies vigorously. If chased in a boa
while ascending our inland rivers, it frequently eludes the pursuer by diving back under the boat and rising
again at a distance out of gun-shot. When on the surface and unmolested, it swims deep in the water, with
its neck upright and its tail wholly submerged.

In conclusion, although I have given prominence to the Clumber Lake, I must state that in winter it visits
+) small numbers all similar waters in the northern parts of England, that it is also seen on the broads
and decoys of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Lincolnshire, and that the Ribble, the Trent, and the Thames may
enumerate it among the birds which irregularly plash down upon their glassy surface. Those that do so
are, however, generally males in their plain dress, or females, and are known to gunners and country-people
as Dun Divers and Saw-bills. So seldom do they see the male in his fine spring plumage that, if they did,
they would not know what it was.

Head and upper part of the neck black, glossed with green and purple ; remainder of the neck, breast,
and under surface beautiful rich buff, fading into white on the tips of the under tail-coverts, and minutely
undulated with grey on the thighs; upper part of the back and inner scapularies deep rich black ; outer
scapularies buff; centre of the back dark grey, lower part of the back and rump light grey, undulated with
dark grey ; tail slate-grey, with black shafts: of the lesser wing-coverts those nearest the body are grey,
with a band of black at the tip, while those along the margin of the shoulder have an additional band of
white, the remainder of the lesser and all the greater coverts creamy white; primaries blackish brown,
becoming much lighter on their inner webs ; secondaries creamy white, with a wash of brown near the tip
of the inner web; tertiaries buff, the first four with a narrow line of black along the margin of the outer
web, the fifth similarly margined on both webs, and the sixth narrowly margined on the outer web, and
stained with black on the inner web near the tip; bill rich deep blood-red, with the exception of the culmen
and the tip of the upper and the under surface of the lower mandible, which are black ; legs and feet orange-
red, webs darker ; nails pale brown ; irides crimson-red.

The young male has the throat whitish ; head and upper part of the neck deep rusty brown ; upper surface
grey, with a dark centre to each feather ; under surface white, washed in some parts deeper than in others
with buff; wing-coverts grey, with black shafts ; primaries as in the adult; posterior portion of the greater
coverts and the secondaries white, on the apical half of their outer webs, back, and tail as in adult ; bill,
feet, and eyes also, but paler.

The Plate 1 epresents a male and a female, somewhat smaller than the size of life, with a reduced figure of
a Kingfisher in the distance.