214 BRITISH ‘SEABIRDS. 
especially delighting in estuaries. It usually arrives 
in the British Islands in October, and remains in 
them until the following April or May. It is not 
so gregarious as some of the other Ducks, and 
generally assembles in parties rather than in flocks, 
the larger gatherings being caused by exceptional 
circumstances. Its habits very closely resemble 
those of allied birds. It is seldom seen on the 
land, and there walks with the waddling gait 
peculiar to most Ducks; on the water, however, 
it is active and graceful enough, swimming well, 
and diving with great celerity, usually seeking by 
this means to escape from danger. The note of 
this Duck is a low croaking urr, uttered both 
when the bird is flying and when at rest. Its 
food consists of crustaceans, molluscs, small fishes, 
and various water plants and weeds. Most of this 
is obtained by diving ; and whilst a flock of birds is 
feeding, several individuals keep watch, all never 
diving together. 
The evidence for this Duck having bred in 
Scotland, is neither reliable nor conclusive. The 
Golden-eye breeds throughout the Arctic and sub- 
Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and America, up 
to the limits of the growth of trees: its winter 
range extends to the tropics. It retires to its 
northern summer haunts with the first signs of 
spring. The favourite breeding resorts of this 
Duck are tracts of more open forest country, 
where the woods are full of swamps and lakes, 
