364 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



ceaselessly all day long. Their food con- 

 sists of shrimps, small shell-fish and 

 marine insects, besides, to a lesser degree, 

 the sea-grass and other vegetable matter. 

 This latter they often carry up from the 

 bottom and eat at their leisure on the 

 surface. I would not have thought them 

 sufficiently agile to catch any of the true 

 fishes, but one day last winter (Dec. 5th), 

 while watching a Golden-eye busily diving 

 among the ice on a small (inland) pool, 

 I was surprised to see it catch several fish. 

 Every third or fourth dive, it brought up 

 a small silvery fish — sticklebacks probably 

 — which it spent some time tugging at and 

 chewing on the surface before finally 

 swallowing." 



Seebohm has the following general 

 remarks on the habits of this species : — 

 " The Golden-eye chooses for its breeding- 

 grounds a combination of forest, lake, 

 river and marsh, and when the ice drives 

 it southwards it prefers a similar locality ; 

 but if such be not easily found it whiles 

 away the winter months on the sea-coast. 

 It is remarkable for its noisy flight, its 

 rapidly moved wings whistling in the 

 wind as it passes overhead. It makes 

 also a great splashing in the water when 

 it rises, but does not readily take wing, 



