GOLDEN-EYE 369 



gists — is, hoAvever, usually called by English writers the Tufted 

 Duck, while "Golden-eye" is reserved in books for the A. dangula 

 and A. glaucion of LinnjBus, -who did not know that the birds he so 

 named were but examples of the same species, 

 diftering only in age or sex ; and to this day 

 many foAvlers perpetuate a like mistake, 

 deeming the " Morillon," which is the female 

 or young male, distinct from the " Golden- 

 eye '"' or " Rattle wings " (as from its noisy 

 flight they oftener call it), which is the adult , . , ^, . 



° -^, . • 1 1 1 Golden-eye. (After Swamson.) 



male, ihis species belongs to the group 



known as Diving Ducks, and is the type of the very well-marked 

 genus Ctangula of later systematists, which, among other differ- 

 ences, has the posterior end of the sternum prolonged so as to 

 extend considerably over, and, we may not unreasonably suppose, 

 protect the belly — a character possessed in a still greater degree 

 by the Merginm (Merganser), while the males also exhibit 

 in the extraordinarily developed bony labyrinth of their trachea 

 and its midway enlargement another resemblance to the members of 

 the same subfamily. The Golden-eye, C. glaucion of modern writers, 

 has its home in the northern parts of both hemispheres, whence in 

 Avinter it migrates southward ; but as it is one of the Ducks that con- 

 stantly resorts to hollow trees for the purpose of breeding, it hardly 

 transcends the limit of the Arctic forests on either continent.^ 



The adult male is mostly black above, but with the head, which 

 is slightly crested, reflecting rich green lights, a large oval white 

 patch under each eye, and elongated white scapulars ; the lower 

 parts are wholly white and the feet bright orange, except the Avebs, 

 Avhich are dusky. In the female and young male, dark brown 

 replaces the black, the cheek-spots are indistinct, and the elongated 

 white scapulars Avanting. The Golden-eye of North America has 

 been by some authors deemed to differ, and has been named C. 

 americana, but apparently on insufficient grounds. That country, 

 however, has in common Avith Greenland and Iceland a very dis- 

 tinct species, C. islandica, often called Barrow's Duck, Avhich is but 

 a rare straggler to the continent of Europe, and not, so far as 

 knoAvn, to Britain.- In Iceland and Greenland it is the only 



^ So Avell known is this habit to the people of the northern districts of Scan- 

 dinavia that they very commonly devise artificial nest-boxes for its accommoda- 

 tion and their own profit. Hollow logs of wood are prepared, the top and 

 bottom closed, and a hole cut in the side. These are affixed to the trunks of 

 living trees in suitable places, at a convenient distance from the gi-ound, and, 

 being readily occupied by the birds in the breeding-season, are regularly robbed, 

 first of the numerous eggs, and finally of the down they contain, by those who 

 have set them up. 



- The recorded instance {Zool. p. 9038) is on worthless authority. 



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