The Green-headed Goosander inhabits the northern parts of Europe, Asia, and America, being pretty equally distributed in all these continents: its migrations, which occur with much greater regularity than those of the _Mergellus albellus_, extend, on the one hand, to all the southern countries of Europe, the south of China, and north of India; and on the other, to the extreme south provinces of the United States. A few pairs are occasionally known to breed in the Orkneys and Hebrides, but with us by far the greater number only arrive from the north about the end of November, and return thither in February. The Green-headed Goosander may justly be regarded as one of the most beautiful of aquatic birds. With the exception of a few hours at noon, he is invariably to be seen in the water. Upon dry land his gait is waddling, and his flight, although rapid, laboured and heavy; but upon the sea he is quite at home. When swimming quietly upon the surface he rows himself along with powerful but slowly-repeated strokes of his broad feet, passing through the water with tolerable velocity. Should he, however, cast an envious eye upon some other bird that has caught and is about to swallow a fish he would fain appropriate, he rushes in pursuit with truly wonderful rapidity. In diving he is equally adroit, plunging suddenly down without the least sound or commotion, and in clear water, where his career, as he steers his course half way between the surface and the bottom can be observed, his rapid progress seems rather to resemble the movements of a trout than those of a bird. On occasions he can remain under water for two minutes at a time; generally, however, he comes up in about a minute, and in this short period, notwithstanding all the ins and outs of his zigzag course, will have dived, as shown by the place of his reappearance, upwards of 100 yards. As long as these birds can obtain a sufficient supply, they subsist exclusively upon fishes, preferring such as are about five or six inches long, although they are well able to vanquish and swallow those of much larger size. The breeding-place of these Goosanders is generally in latitudes very far north, their usual resort being to the Danish islands, and even still farther north. Their period of incubation commences about the beginning of June. The nest is constructed in various situations, often in some excavation in the ground, hidden between stones or bushes, on the tops of pollard willows, on the lofty eyries of birds of prey, in the deserted nests of Crows, or within the cavities of hollow trees. At Jana-Elf we saw large chests, resembling dove-cots, upon all the tallest trees; these we were told were intended specially to induce the Goosanders to build their nests, and lay their eggs in them. These breeding-boxes are likewise in common use among the Lapps and Finns, and, as we learned, were regularly visited by the breeding birds. [Illustration: THE GREEN-HEADED GOOSANDER (_Mergus merganser_).]