358 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



out tin - whole winter the reverse of their behaviour <m 



the coast. 



I he drakes of this species take some years to acquire 

 the handsome pied plumage of full maturity perhaps 

 three or lour. One gets birds in all stages of the female 

 or immature plumage, some with brown eyes, others hazel 

 and many light golden, and with the speculum, wing-coverts, 



and neck-plumage in various degrees of development; 

 but adult drakes are always extremely rare on the coast. 

 We have only obtained lour or live in all, the first on 

 December [3th, 1XH7 a lovely specimen in full mature 

 plumage. It was a single bird, and so busy diving as to 

 permit the punt to approach within shot of a small gun. 



Golden-eyes remain here till late in the spring. I have 



seen adults in May, but that is not surprising, as in 

 Norway they do not seek their breeding-spots, among the 

 hill lochs, till early in June. 



I he scaup is another of the diving-ducks which the 

 punt-gunner is sure to meet with "inside" from time to 

 time, though less often than the golden-eyes. This, 

 however, is not due to any relative scarcity of the scaup, 

 which some winters is quite as abundant, but is explained 

 by difference in haunts and habits. The favourite feed- 

 ing '.oounds of the scaup are in a fathom or two of water 

 over rocks where; sca-wced s^rows luxuriantly, and where 



they dive among the long, waving tangles in search of 



the various shell-fish, with their spawn, and the host of 

 minute; forms of marine life which abound in such places. 



Owing to this preference, their company is often confined 

 all through the winter to certain localities — usually 

 rocky bays adjoining the open sea — hence they are less 

 frequently met with than the golden-eyes, which are- 

 scattered in odd pairs all over the sandy channels of the 



