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.
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."