208 Poachers and Poaching. 



puzzling to the puntsman. Instead of paddling 

 away like other ducks when alarmed, it immedi- 

 ately takes wing, and after having dived, it can 

 shoot from the water without waiting on the 

 surface an instant. This species has also several 

 remarkable characteristics. The members of a 

 flock paddling in the sea are never all im- 

 mersed at once, one or more always remaining 

 on the surface as sentinels. Another trait is the 

 almost invariable habit of nesting in holes, so that 

 the Laps place darkened boxes by the sides of 

 rivers and lakes for the ducks to lay in. Often 

 as many as a dozen eggs are found, and the nests 

 are lined with the soft down of the ducks. On 

 our coasts these ducks feed upon crustaceans 

 and molluscs, and many fishermen know it by 

 the name of "mussel-cracker." "Rattlewing" 

 is another provincial name owing to the musical 

 whistle which the bird makes with its wings 

 when flying. Its short rounded wings are ever 

 restless ; the shy little duck is ceaselessly swim- 

 ming, diving, flying never seeming to sleep and 

 never still. The pride of plumage of the golden- 

 eye stands it in little stead at table, where it is 

 considered nearly worthless. An interesting 

 incident which lingers in the writer's memory 

 had for its subject a pair of male golden- 

 eyes in all the glory of matured plumage A 

 friend during a solitary ramble by a rush-grown 

 mountain tarn had the good fortune to see these 



