196 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



ill hard weather. The young birds do not seem to 

 be much influenced in the time of their visits to us 

 by the state of the weather, and are as often to be 

 met with in an open October as during our first sharp 

 frosts. The old Golden-Eye is generally exceedingly 

 wary and difficult to approach, but the young are the 

 most confiding of wild-fowl till thev have been 

 harassed and shot at, and as they are extremely 

 ornamental, and perfectly worthless from a culinary 

 point of view, by far the best line of conduct to adopt 

 with them is that of friendly observation. This bird 

 is, in my experience, the most rapid diver of its genus, 

 but I do not think that it can remain beneath the 

 water for so long a time as the Scaup. The flight of 

 the Golden-Eye is very swift and vigorous, and is 

 accompanied by a peculiar swishing noise of the 

 wings, which has gained for this bird the nicknames 

 of " Rattlewing " and " Whistle-Duck." This species 

 has a curious habit of throwing back its head, at the 

 same time uttering a low mewing note, with the bill 

 pointed straight upwards; till the summer of 1890, 

 I had always considered that this action and note 

 were peculiar to the males in the courting-season, 

 but in that year I several times saw and heard two 

 females on my wild-fowl pond at Lilford engaged in 

 these performances. 1 may mention that, with the 

 exception above mentioned, I never heard any sort 

 of call or cry produced by a Golden-Eye. These 

 birds thrive well in semi-captivity, and are naturally 

 very hardy, but require an occasional supply of other 

 than vegetable food, small fishes (whole or cut-up), 

 shrimps, and raw meat are greedily devoured, and 

 my birds seem to find a certain amount of food for 

 themselves in the mud at the bottom of the pond, 



