GOLDEN-EYE. 89 
tips of its tail feathers are much worn.’ He also adds, ‘when 
on the wing, and pursued by birds of prey, it has the 
capacity of shooting down from the air into the water, and 
disappearing instantaneously below its surface.’ Yarrell states 
that if five or six of these Ducks are together, they do not 
all dive at the same time, but that some of them keep a 
good look-out to prevent being approached and surprised by 
an enemy. Sir William Jardine says, on the contrary, that 
they ‘are the more easily approached for that they all dive 
simultaneously. When thus stolen a march on, they seek 
safety by flight, and not by diving. On the land they walk 
in a shuffling and ungainly manner. 
They make their food of shell-fish, frogs, and tadpoles, 
water-insects, mollusca, small fry, and the buds, seeds, and 
roots of various plants. 
Their cry is hoarse and somewhat sibilous, but the former 
sound is more or less characteristic of all the Ducks, none of 
whom are wont to express their wants and wishes ‘sotto voce.’ 
The Golden-Eye builds in the vicinity of lakes and rivers, 
giving a preference to the latter, particularly such as flow over 
falls and rapids. The Laplanders place boxes with holes in 
them in the trees in these localities, for the birds to build in, 
and thus procure the eggs, for the cotes are sure to be resorted 
to for the purpose of laying in. The nest is made of rushes 
and other herbage, lined with down. Mr. Hewitson found one 
in a hole in a tree, ten or twelve feet from the ground. 
The eggs are of a greenish hue, and from ten to fourteen 
in number. 
It appears that the old bird takes the young ones to the 
water by holding it under the bill between it and the neck. 
Male; weight, nearly two pounds; length, one foot six to one 
foot seven inches; bill, bluish black, deep at the base, behind 
it is a round patch of clear white, observable in flight, even 
at a considerable distance; iris, golden yellow; forehead, brownish 
black. The head, which is large, is, on the crown, the feathers 
on the back of which are a little elongated, and capable of 
being much raised at will, as are the neck on the upper part, 
nape, chin, and throat, brownish black, glossed with green and 
violet; the lower part of the neck all round and the breast, 
white, or yellowish white in some, the sides dull greyish black, 
and there are a few streaks of velvet black on the flanks, the 
outer parts of the inner webs of the feathers being of that 
colour. Back, deep bluish black. 
