A bird generally rare in our inland waters is this year quite common on all our shores. We refer to the goosander (Mergus merganser, Linn.), one of the handsomest and most interesting of sea-fowl. Of the Merganser family the goosander is the largest, and the whole order is remarkable for their serrated mandibles, the nearest approach to anything like teeth to be met with among birds, and admirably adapted for retaining firm hold, when seized, of their slippery prey, which mainly consists of eels, lampreys, &c., in dealing with which "kittle cattle" in deep water an ordinary unarmed duck-bill would be a very inefficient weapon. Once in the firm grip of the Merganser's serrated bill, however, the chance of such comparatively small fish as it can alone feed upon must be very small indeed. We saw a very fine male specimen a few days ago, which a young man had shot, believing it to be a "wild duck," as he termed it, and necessarily good for eating. We told him that he had been guilty of a piece of very unnecessary and indefensible cruelty, for that the bird in his hand was in truth a Merganser, and no more fit to be eaten than a ten-year-old herring gull or an octogenarian guillemot. He looked at us with a smile, in which we thought we detected a considerable shade of incredulity, and we do believe that the thought passed through his mind at that moment that we only spoke so disparagingly of the bird because we wanted to get hold of it ourselves, either by its being given to us as a present, or for the smallest possible money payment, and then what a jolly feed we should have at the expense of his ornithological ignorance and juvenile simplicity! Perhaps we do him injustice; but, at all events, he carried the bird away with him, observing that he "would try it at any rate." We met his sister a day or two afterwards, and on inquiring if they had cooked the "wild duck," and how they liked it, we confess that it was with an inward chuckle of intense satisfaction that we listened as she told us that, after having duly boiled and cooked it secundum artem, until it ought to have been good and tender, it turned out to be so rank, and fishy, and tough, that no one could eat a morsel of it, and it had to be thrown into the dinner refuse basket as worthless! These birds, though necessarily hardy, and able to outlive a vast amount of cold and storm, are exceedingly fond of still water, rarely resting or fishing when there is any surface disturbance beyond a slight ripple; and hence it is that you so seldom meet with them elsewhere than in the most sheltered bays, creeks, and estuaries, where the water is least liable to the surface turmoil and commotion of a storm. The finest stuffed specimen of the Merganser we ever saw is at Achnacarry Castle, Lochiel's seat in Lochaber.