GOLDEN-EYE. 323 



bar ; and the flanks and under tail-coverts are mottled with greyish 

 black. Sooty brown is the prevailing colour of the duckling, but the 

 throat and a spot on each side of the lower part of the back at the 

 base of the wing are white, and the breast and under-parts are greyish 

 white. 



The breeding-area of the golden-eye is circumpolar, extending in 

 Scandinavia to the very general limit of about 70 north latitude, but 

 in Russia falling apparently some twelve degrees below this. Holstein, 

 Pomerania, eastern Prussia, and the Caucasus fall within the southern 

 limits of the breeding-area in Europe. In winter this duck visits the 

 Mediterranean countries, Persia, Afghanistan, China, and, in the New 

 World, the southern United States and Mexico. To Great Britain 

 and Ireland the golden-eye, as a rule, is nothing more than a winter- 

 visitor, making its appearance in October and departing in April or 

 May. Occasionally, however, a pair foregoes the trouble of a long 

 northern journey and remains with us to breed. In the summer of 

 1895 a pair, for example, nested near Otley in Yorkshire, and a second 

 pair on Swinsty reservoir in the same county ; and if two such in- 

 stances occurred in one season in a single county, there must almost 

 certainly be others which have escaped detection. There are also re- 

 ports as to the breeding of the species in Scotland, although no definite 

 instance appears to have been recorded. To Ireland the golden-eye is 

 described as a winter-visitor, frequenting both salt and fresh water in 

 all districts, but less common than the pochard. 



Although the statement as to its commonly visiting salt water in 

 Ireland is no doubt perfectly correct, the golden-eye as a rule is a 

 freshwater duck, frequenting rivers, lakes, and marshes alike, but some- 

 times making its appearance on the coast in winter. The story as to 

 no less than one hundred and twenty of these birds having been driven 

 by the current into a net in the river Eden, in Fifeshire, in the spring 

 of 1 8 10 is so remarkable as to be worth one more mention. The 

 most strange feature in the normal habits of this species is, however, its 

 propensity for nesting in the hollow of a decayed tree, or failing this, 

 the crown of a pollard ; thus performing as a rule a feat essayed only 

 occasionally by the mallard. The height of the nest above the ground 

 is stated in one instance to have been a dozen feet, and in another rather 

 more than double that amount. The young are carried down held 

 between the beak and the breast of the duck. When no tree is avail- 

 able, the nest is placed on the ground. The Lapps and Finns take 

 advantage of this tree-nesting habit of the golden-eye by suspending 

 suitable boxes at a convenient height above the ground, in which the 



