AQUATIC FOWL. 167 



but not abundantly ; it is very shy and wary, and, from being an 

 expert diver, usually escapes from our decoys ; it is said to breed 

 in confinement. The head is adorned with a long and graceful 

 crest of a rich, blackish green, with a strong, purple gloss ; the 

 neck, upper back, and breast, are deep black, the centre of the 

 latter having the feathers tipped with gray ; the back, scapulars, 

 and tertials, are also black, very minutely spotted with yellowish 

 white, giving a subdued tint to those parts; the rump, tail, 

 under tail coverts, and thighs, are black ; quills of same colour, 

 grayish in the centre of the feather ; the greater coverts pure 

 white, with a broad, black tip ; belly and vent flanks white ; bill 

 bluish gray ; tip black. 



THE GOLDEN EYE 



Is a handsome species of duck; it is not uncommon in Great 

 Britain, and an early winter visitor. It is difficult to be kept in 

 confinement, the food not appearing to agree with it : I could not 

 get it to live for a long period. It is an incessant diver, and rapid 

 flier. They retire to the north in spring, and breed in Scanda- 

 navia, Norway, Sweden, and Lapland, in hollow trees. It is 

 well known to American ornithologists. A mature male weighs 

 near two pounds ; length between eighteen and nineteen inches ; 

 bill black ; irides fine bright yellow ; head and upper part of the 

 neck black, glossed with green and violet, changeable as viewed 

 in different lights ; at the corner of the mouth is a large white 

 spot ; the lower part of the neck, the breast, and all beneath, are 

 white ; the back, rump, and upper tail coverts, black ; scapulars, 

 black and white ; the coverts of the wings are black, with a white 

 patch on the lesser, and another on the larger coverts; quill 

 feathers black, except some of the secondaries, which are mostly 

 white; tail black; legs orange. They associate in small flocks, 

 and frequent rivers convenient to the sea. 



THE WHISTLING DUCK, 



Although it cannot properly be classed with the British ducks, 

 still it has been so frequently imported from South America, and 

 the Islands, and being found in almost all the large collections in 

 England and Ireland, a description may not be unacceptable. Its 

 length, from the tip of the bill to the middle of the tail, is about 

 twenty inches. It makes a noise like the whistling of a pipe, 

 from whence it has its name ; and, as well as other ducks of that 



