i8o THE NESTS AND EGGS OF 



it breeds as far south as Holstein, Brandenburg, 

 Pomerania, and Prussia, and in Russia as far south as 

 the Caucasus. In Asia it breeds throughout Siberia 

 south of the Hmits of forest growth. In the New World 

 (if we admit that the birds are identical) it breeds 

 throughout British North America, and Alaska, south 

 of the limits of forest growth. 



Breeding habits : The Golden-eye is a somewhat 

 hardy species, and its migrations are consequently 

 limited. It returns to its old breeding places as soon 

 as they are free from ice, the date varying according to 

 locality and state of the season. During winter the 

 Golden-eye is more or less gregarious, and in many cases 

 continues social throughout the breeding season, numbers 

 of nests being made within a small area if suitable sites 

 are to be had. This Duck probably pairs for life and 

 returns to the same nesting place every season. The 

 Golden-eye may frequently be seen to perch in a tree. 

 The favourite breeding haunt of this Duck is open 

 forest country where the trees are large and many of 

 them decayed, and where the ground is broken up into 

 swamps and lakes with the timber more or less thickly 

 interspersed between them. The nest is usually made 

 in a hollow tree as much as thirty feet from the ground, 

 either in a hole in the trunk or in a hollow branch, 

 the deserted hole of a Black Woodpecker sometimes 

 being used. Naumann asserts that the nest is frequently 

 made amongst rushes and other aquatic vegetation, or 

 on the top of a pollard either near the water or at some 

 distance from it : this is probably in districts where no 

 hollow trees can hz found. The Lapp and Finnish 

 peasants place boxes and hollow logs for this Duck to 

 breed in, regularly but judiciously removing the eggs. 

 The partiality of this species for a nesting site near a 

 waterfall or quick-flowing stream has been remarked by 



