GOLDEN-EYE 39 



real golden-eyed drake the breast is white as well as the flanks, 

 and there is a great white patch on the face. Even the female, 

 whose breast is grey like her back, has a white neck sharply 

 contrasted with her dark-brown head, and so is well distinguished 

 from the female tufted duck, whose neck is dark continuously 

 with the head and breast. 



In flight the golden-eye is distinguishable by sound more than 

 any other duck, the very loud and clear whistle made by the 

 wings, which have no white on the end-quills like those of the 

 tufted pochard, being a most marked characteristic of the species, 

 and often giving it a special name, such as " rattle-wing " and 

 " whistler." 



There is a good deal of difference in size between the sexes of 

 this species, the drake weighing two pounds or more, sometimes 

 nearly three, while the duck runs more than half a pound less, 

 and looks conspicuously smaller when both are together. Young 

 males are very like females, but the old male in undress may be 

 distinguished, not only by his much greater size, but by having 

 more white on the wing. 



The golden-eye has a bushy-looking head and a very narrow, 

 short, high-based bill ; the tail is also very characteristic, being 

 longer than ducks' tails usually are. Often, however, it is not 

 to be seen as the birds are swimming, being allowed to trail in 

 the water, but sometimes they float with tail well out of the 

 water, when the length becomes noticeable. On land, where 

 they spend but little time, they stand more erect than most 

 ducks. 



Golden-eyes in India only appear as uncommon winter 

 visitors, as a rule ; but in the valley of the Indus at one end of 

 our area and the Irrawaddy at the other, they seem to occur 

 regularly, and are also common in the Lakhimpur district, 

 frequenting hill-streams like the mergansers, to which, rather 

 than to the ordinary diving-ducks, they are related. Indeed, 

 this species has been known to produce hybrids with the smew 

 in the wild state, and, like that bird, it breeds in holes in treeo 

 in the northern forests. 



The golden-eye, however, is found all round the world, nou 

 conhned to the Eastern Hemisphere. It goes in winter either 



