The Red-breasted Merganser breeds in May, the eggs being laid during the latter half of that month, and the first half of June. Although not gregarious during this period, it is, at any rate, social, for several pairs may be found nesting very close together, if keeping somewhat to themselves. An island is always preferred to the mainland. The nest is placed under a rock or bank, in a rabbit burrow, or amongst dense heather and gorse at no great distance from the water. In many cases the eggs are laid upon the bare ground, in others a few dry vegetable fragments are collected into a slight hollow, but a plentiful bed of down gradually accumulates around them. From eight to twelve olive-gray eggs are laid, upon which the female alone sits. The male, however, is in attendance on the water near by, and the duck joins him there during the short periods that she leaves her charge to feed and to bathe. If alarmed, the hen bird slips off very quietly. When the young are hatched the drake retires to moult, and the female brings them up unaided. Outside our islands this Merganser is widely distributed over the northern parts of Europe, Asia, and America, drawing southwards in winter.
GOOSANDER.
As this beautiful Duck, the Mergus merganser of ornithologists, not only occurs in some numbers in British waters as a winter visitor, but breeds sparingly within our limits, it has some claim to be included in the present volume, although it cannot be regarded as a very striking feature in coast bird life. It is also far less exclusively marine than the preceding species. The Goosander is an even more handsome bird than the Red-breasted Merganser, and is the largest species in the present sub-family. The colours of the male are arranged in a most effective and strongly-contrasted way. The head and neck are dark metallic-green, the breast is a delicate and beautiful pink, the upper parts and the wings are black and white, the under parts below the breast white. The female has the head reddish-brown, the upper parts grayish-brown or pale chestnut, the lower buffish-white. In its habits and in the haunts it frequents, the Goosander very closely resembles its smaller ally. When, in winter, frequenting the coast it delights in the bays and fjords, but occasionally wanders to less precipitous shores, notably estuaries and the mouths of tidal rivers. It is a remarkably agile bird in the water, swimming and diving with equal ease, but on the land its movements are ungainly, the bird wriggling along with its breast almost touching the ground, in a very Diver-like manner. In diving, it often descends to a great depth. Although not often seen much on shore, it possesses the Cormorant-like habit of basking on some rock jutting from the water, sitting with its body upright and wings half expanded. Its food consists of fish, crabs, molluscs, and aquatic insects. Most of this is obtained whilst the bird is diving.
The Goosander, in our islands, is as yet only known to breed in a few localities in the Highlands. Its eggs are laid during April and May. Its favourite nesting haunts are open, swampy forests, containing lakes and rocky streams. The nest is generally made in a hole in a tree, but crevices in rocks, or cavities in exposed tree roots by the water side, are sometimes selected. But little nest is made, although when the full clutch of eggs is deposited a thick and abundant bed of down surrounds them. The eggs are from eight to twelve in number, creamy white and glossy. It is not known whether the drake assists in the duty of incubation. The Goosander has a wide geographical range, which extends over Arctic and North temperate Europe, Asia, and America, and more southern areas during winter.
SMEW.
This species, the Mergus albellus of systematists, is not only the smallest of the Mergansers, but by far the least common in British waters. Its visits are chiefly confined to the eastern coast line of England and Scotland and the south coast of England. Even in these areas adult males—from their strongly-contrasted black-and-white plumage locally known as “Nuns”—are much more rarely met with than females and young birds, called by the gunners of the east coast “Red-headed Smews.” Unfortunately, the male Smew is a bird that does not approach the coast much, and the female, from her duller colouration and small size, is readily overlooked. Lastly, it is the least maritime of the family. The male Smee or Smew, in nuptial plumage, is black and white—some of the former colour displayed in curious crescentic markings on the shoulders and in front of the wings, the elongated crest is pearly white, emphasised by greenish black, and the flanks are finely vermiculated with gray. The female has the head reddish-brown. During winter the Smew is gregarious, living in flocks of thirty or forty individuals, mostly immature. It prefers the more open water at some distance from shore, seeking to evade pursuit by swimming, but, if fired at, diving at once and reappearing far out of danger. When feeding most of the birds dive at once, rising in scattered order, but soon bunching together as each bird swims to a central rallying point. The Smew does not visit the land much, and even sleeps upon the water. It is a most accomplished diver, descending to great depths, and using its wings to assist it through the water, which it traverses with as much ease as a Cormorant or an Auk. Upon our coasts its food consists principally of small fishes and crustaceans. Its note is a harsh kurr, but at its breeding grounds it is said to utter a bell-like call, hence in Northern Asia it has been called the “Bell Duck.”
The Smew breeds in the forest swamps of the Arctic regions, making its nest in a hollow fallen log, or in a hole in a tree or stump. The eggs are laid upon the powdered wood, but are eventually surrounded with a quantity of down from the body of the parent. The seven or eight eggs, creamy-white in colour, are laid late in June or early in July. The ducklings are said to be conveyed to the water by the female in her bill.
GEESE.
The Geese form an extensive and well-defined sub-family of the Anatidæ termed Anserinæ. They are distinguished from their allies by having the lores covered with feathers, and the tarsus reticulated back and front. The Geese differ further from the Swans, in having a relatively longer tarsus, and much shorter neck; and from the Ducks by their short, robust, subconical bill. Geese frequent both land and water, inland districts as well as the coasts and seas. The sexes do not present such striking contrasts of colour as in the Ducks. Geese moult once in the year, in autumn. The distribution of the sub-family is almost a cosmopolitan one, but the New World contains the greatest number of species. Half-a-dozen species are more or less abundant visitors to our islands in winter, but one species only breeds within our limits, and even this has been extirpated from most of its ancient haunts. These half-dozen species divide themselves into two distinct groups, four of them consisting of the Gray Geese, and two the Black Geese. The birds in the former group are the least maritime in their haunts, visiting the land to feed, whilst those in the latter division are inseparably associated with the sea during their sojourn in our area. As the former group contains the familiar “Wild Goose”—which is the original stock from which the farmyard Goose has been derived—we will deal first with the species contained in it.