5be BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
_ The Goldeneye is said generally to place its nest 
in a hole in a hollow tree, if it can find one. So 
fond are these birds of breeding in holes, that 
Yarrell says the inhabitants of Norway and Lapland 
place boxes with an entrance-hole in the trees on 
the banks of rivers and lakes in which the Golden- 
eye lays its eggs, which of course are robbed; but 
in spite of this the birds constantly return to the 
same place. Meyer says the nests are occasionally 
placed amongst rushes and coarse grass. Like many 
other of the swimming birds the Goldeneye appears 
to line its nest with down from its own body. 
The Goldeneye is easily kept tame, and the male 
bird, being one of our handsomest and most con- 
spicuous water birds, is a great ornament to a pond: 
the bill of the adult male is bluish black ; the irides 
golden yellow; the head and neck dark glossy green ; 
behind the base of the beak on the side of the face is 
a conspicuous white spot; the lower part of the neck, 
the breast, scapulars, belly and under tail-coverts 
are white; from the scapulars are some rather 
longish feathers hanging down over the wing,—the 
hindermost of these are white with a black margin 
on the outer web, the more forward ones are white 
in the centre, with two black margins; the back, | 
rump and tail-coverts are black; the tertials are 
black, as are some of the lesser wing-coverts; the 
rest of the wing-coverts and the secondary quills are 
white; the primary quills and some of their coverts 
