THE AMERICAN GOLDEN-EYE. 



We watch the hunters creeping near 

 Or crouching in the silvery grasses; 



Their gleaming guns our greatest fear, 

 As high o'erhead our wild flock passes. 



But we are of the air, and speed 



Like meteors dropping from the sky; 



He's " the man behind the gun " indeed 

 Who can fairly wing a Golden-eye. 



— C. C. M. 



FOR beauty this bird will compare 

 favorably with any of the fam- 

 ily except the Wood Duck, 

 whose colors are more various 

 and brilliant. Whistler is the name by 

 which it is more commonly known, 

 from the peculiar noise of wings made 

 while flying. In spite of its short, heavy 

 body and small wings, it covers im- 

 mense distances, ninety miles an hour 

 being the speed credited to it by Audu- 

 bon, who, however, was not always accu- 

 rate in his calculations. It is an abun- 

 dant species throughout the fur coun- 

 tries, where it frequents the rivers and 

 fresh-water lakes in great numbers. It 

 breeds as far north as Alaska, where, on 

 the Yukon, it nests about the middle of 

 June. Like the Wood Duck, it makes 

 its nest in hollow trees and decayed 

 trunks. This consists of grass, leaves, 

 and moss, lined with down from the 

 bird's breast. The eggs are from six 

 to ten in number, and ashy green in 

 color. 



The Golden-eye is a winter visitant to 

 Illinois. On Long Island it is better 

 known among the hunters as the 

 "Whistler," and by others it is also 

 called the "Great-head," from its beau- 



tifully rich and thickly crested head. 

 On that island it is said to be a not very 

 abundant species, arriving there in com- 

 pany with other migratory Ducks, Mr. 

 Girand met with it in the fall and spring- 

 on the Delaware and in Chesapeake 

 bay. Its food consists of small Shell 

 and other Fish, which it procures by 

 diving. In the fall the flesh of the 

 Golden-eye is very palatable. It is very 

 shy and is decoyed with great difficulty. 

 In stormy weather it often takes shel- 

 ter in the coves with the Scoup Duck, 

 and there it may be more readily killed. 

 Naturally the Golden-eye is chiefly seen 

 in company with the Buffle-head, the 

 Merganser, and other species that are 

 expert divers like itself. When wounded, 

 unless badly hurt, its power of diving 

 and remaining under water is said to be 

 so remarkable that it cannot be taken. 

 The Golden-eyes always have a senti- 

 nel on the watch to announce the ap- 

 proach of an enemy. They have been 

 very little studied in their haunts. The 

 word Cla7igiila indicates in some degree 

 the tone of their voices. They swim 

 under water like fish, out of which they 

 can bound upward and make off with 

 prodigious speed. 



GOLDEN ROD. 



A lady who has lately been making a 

 visit in the West was telling the other 

 day about the forlorn aspect of the 

 country out that way to her. "Even 

 the Golden-rod," she said; "you can't 

 imagine how scraggly and poor it looks, 

 compared with our magnificent flowers 

 along the road here. I wonder what 

 makes the Western Golden-rod so infe- 

 rior," The very next day there arrived 

 at- her house a relative whom she had 

 been visiting when she was in the West. 

 He sat on the veranda, and looked in- 



dulgently — even admiringly — at the 

 landscape, and praised its elements of 

 beauty. But as his eye ran along the 

 roadside near by, he said: "But there is 

 one thing that we are ahead of you in — 

 you have no such splendid Golden-rod 

 here as we have out West! The Gold- 

 en-rod growing along that road, now, is 

 tame and poor compared with ours," 

 What a blessed thing it is that the gold 

 of our own waysides is richer than the 

 gold of all other waysides! 



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