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DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS. 216 
and the timber contains plenty of holes. The 
nest is usually made in a hollow tree, in a hole 
in the trunk, or in a hollow branch, sometimes as 
many as thirty feet from the ground; whilst the 
partiality of the bird for a tree near a waterfall, 
or running stream, has been noticed by more than 
one observer. The nest consists entirely of the 
down plucked from the female’s body. The ten 
or twelve eggs are laid in May or June, and are 
bright green in colour. The nest-hole is never 
made by the Duck itself. The peasants of 
Northern Scandinavia place hollow logs in suit- 
able places on the tree-trunks, which the Golden- 
Eyes appear readily to avail themselves of, and 
from which the eggs and down are systematically 
taken. The young are conveyed to the ground, 
one by one, pressed between the female’s bill and 
her breast. The male is not known to assist in the 
task of incubation, but may possibly do so. 
LONG-TAILED DUCK. 
This beautiful and remarkably elegant species, 
the Axas glacials of Linneus, and the Fudlzgula 
or Harelda glacialis of modern writers, is another 
winter visitor to the British seas. It is only of 
somewhat rare occurrence in our southern waters, 
but northwards, off the Scotch coasts, it becomes 
more frequent, and in certain localities—notably the 
Hebrides, and the Orkneys and Shetlands—even 
abundant. In the latter islands it is locally known 
