. A history of British birds . 488 AN SERES. ANATIDiE. MerctUS merganser, Linnfeus*. THE GOOSANDER. Mergus Merganser. Mergus, LinncEusf.—Bill about as long, or longer than the head, straight,slender, rather pointed, the base large, forming an elongated and almost acylindrical cone ; point of the upper mandible curved, and, with the horny nail,forming a hook ; edges of both mandibles furnished with saw-like teeth, thepoints directed backwards. Nostrils lateral, about the middle of the beak,longitudinally elliptic. Legs short, placed rather backward ; three toes in frontwebbed, hind t
. A history of British birds . 488 AN SERES. ANATIDiE. MerctUS merganser, Linnfeus*. THE GOOSANDER. Mergus Merganser. Mergus, LinncEusf.—Bill about as long, or longer than the head, straight,slender, rather pointed, the base large, forming an elongated and almost acylindrical cone ; point of the upper mandible curved, and, with the horny nail,forming a hook ; edges of both mandibles furnished with saw-like teeth, thepoints directed backwards. Nostrils lateral, about the middle of the beak,longitudinally elliptic. Legs short, placed rather backward ; three toes in frontwebbed, hind toe with a pendant lobe or membrane. Wings moderate, the firstand second quill-feathers nearly equal in length. The Goosander, the largest of the British Mergansers,a male and female of which are figured above, is mainly tobe considered as a winter visitor to our islands, although asmall number remain to breed annually among the lochs insome northern localities to be hereafter pointed out. Birds * Mergus Merganser, Linnwus+ loc. cit. Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 2
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsaun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds
