174 DUCK SHOOTING. 



The female has the head and upper part of the neck 

 brown. There is a white ring about the lower neck, 

 and the upper breast is gray. The back is blackish- 

 brown. The white on the wing is chiefly confined to 

 the secondaries. The under parts are white; the tail is 

 dark brown; bill sometimes yellowish, but more often 

 brownish ; legs and feet as in the male. 



The American golden-eye has been separated by nat- 

 uralists from the bird of Europe and called a variety, on 

 no better ground than that it is slightly larger than the 

 Old World form. Naturalists are not agreed on this 

 point, and sportsmen are not greatly interested in such 

 fine distinctions. 



The golden-eye is a bird of wide distribution, breed- 

 ing throughout the northern parts of the Northern 

 Hemisphere and in winter pursuing its migrations as 

 far south as the Southern United States and even be- 

 yond to Cuba, It is a bird familiar to all sportsmen, 

 but from the standpoint of the epicure it is not highly 

 regarded. It has been found breeding as far north as 

 Alaska and undoubtedly is scattered in summer, in mod- 

 erate numbers, all over the British possessions. It 

 breeds in Maine and also in Massachusetts, but probably 

 not south of that. I have found the golden-eye com- 

 mon, in summer, in the high Rocky Mountains, not far 

 south of the parallel of 49 degrees, but am unable to say 

 whether it was this or the next species. 



The golden-eye is one of the few tree-breeding ducks, 

 choosing for this purpose some hollow limb or broken- 

 off stump in which to lay its eggs ; these are pale gray- 



