GOLDEN-EVE 369 
gists—is, however, usually called by English writers the Tufted 
Duck, while “ Golden-eye” is reserved in books for the 4. clangula 
and 4. glaucion of Linneus, who did not know that the birds he so 
named were butexamples of the same species, 
differing only in age or sex ; and to this day 
many fowlers perpetuate a like mistake, 
deeming the “ Morillon,” which is the female 
or young male, distinct from the ‘“ Golden- 
eye” or “Rattlewings” (as from its noisy 
flight they oftener call it), which is the adult 
male. This species belongs to the group 
known as Diving Ducks, and is the type of the very well-marked 
genus Clangula of later systematists, which, among other differ- 
ences, has the posterior end of the sternum prolonged so as to 
extend considerably over, and, we may not unreasonably suppose, 
protect the belly —a chanacter possessed in a still greater degree 
by the Merginw (MERGANSER), while the males also exhibit 
in the extraordinarily developed bony labyrinth of their trachea 
and its midway enlargement another resemblance to the members of 
the same subfamily. The Golden-eye, C. glaucion of modern writers, 
has its home in the northern parts of both hemispheres, whence in 
winter it migrates southward ; but as it is one of the Ducks that con- 
stantly resorts to hollow trees for the purpose of breeding, it hardly 
transcends the limit of the Arctic forests on either continent.? 
The adult male is mostly black above, but with the head, which 
is slightly crested, reflecting rich green lights, a large oval white 
patch under each eye, and elongated white scapulars; the lower 
parts are wholly white and the feet bright orange, except the webs, 
which are dusky. In the female and young male, dark brown 
replaces the black, the cheek-spots are indistinct, and the elongated 
white scapulars wanting. The Golden-eye of North America has 
been by some authors deemed to differ, and has been named C. 
americana, but apparently on insufficient grounds. That country, 
however, has in common with Greenland and Iceland a very dis- 
tinct species, C. islandica, often called Barrow’s Duck, which is but 
a rare straggler to the continent of Europe, and not, so far as 
known, to Britain.2 In Iceland and Greenland it is the only 
GOLDEN-EYE. (After Swainson.) 
1 So well known is this habit to the people of the northern districts of Scan- 
dinavia that they very commonly devise artificial nest-boxes for its accommoda- 
tion and their own profit. Hollow logs of wood are prepared, the top and 
bottom closed, and a hole cut in the side. These are affixed to the trunks of 
living trees in suitable places, at a convenient distance from the ground, and, 
being readily occupied by the birds in the breeding-season, are regularly robbed, 
first of the numerous eggs, and finally of the down they contain, by those who 
have set them up. 
* The recorded instance (Zool. p. 9038) is on worthless authority. 
24 
