270 ANATID.E. 



Linnseiis, in his tour in Lapland, refers to the egg-boxes of 

 tlie natives, when near Lycksele, in the following terms : — 

 " A little further on a couple of young Owls were suspended 

 on a tree. On my inquiring what these birds had done to 

 be so served, the rower made me remark, on the most lofty 

 of the fir-trees, concave cylinders of wood, closed at top and 

 bottom, and having an aperture on one side. These cylin- 

 ders are placed on the highest part of the trees, in order to 

 tempt Wild Ducks to lay their eggs in them, and they are 

 afterwards plundered by the country-people. In one of 

 these nests a brood of young Owls had been hatched instead 

 of young Ducks.'" 



West of Scandinavia the Golden Eye is found at the 

 Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland ; and is well knoAvn 

 and described by the ornithologists of North America. East 

 of Great Britain it is found in winter in Holland and Ger- 

 many ; on the coast of France, and also, sometimes, in the 

 interior. It visits, though rarely, the lakes of Switzerland, 

 and has been taken in Provence. M. Savi includes it in 

 his Birds of Italy, and mentions, that from the circumstance 

 of this Duck having a light-coloured patch in addition to 

 its light-coloured eye on each side of its head, it is, in dif- 

 ferent parts of that country, called Quattr-occhi, (four eyes.) 

 The Zoological Society have received specimens, sent by 

 Keith Abbott, Esq., from Trebizond ; the Russian naturalists 

 found it in the vicinity of the Caucasus ; and M. Temminck 

 says that the Golden Eye of Japan is identical with the bird 

 of Europe. 



The Ornithological Society of London have preserved a 

 female Golden Eye on the canal in St. James''s Park for 

 the last two years ; she associates constantly with a male 

 Smew. 



The adult male has the bill bluish-black ; the iridcs 

 golden-yellow ; at the base of the upper mandible a roundish 

 white patch ; head, and sides of the neck rich glossy green, 



