220 DIVING DUCKS. 



on the upper and becoming brown on the lower 

 flanks ; bill bluish-black ; legs and toes orange- 

 yellow. Female : dark brown above, with the 

 white wing-patch, but without the white face-spot, 

 of the male. Winter migrant. 



The golden eye of the bird so called is not 

 distinctive, its congeners having similarly bright- 

 yellow eyes ; but the white facial spot and the 

 simple, pronounced markings of this Duck place it 

 almost beyond the possibility of confusion. It is 

 a winter visitor principally to inland waters, but is 

 found also on the coasts, especially when frozen out 

 of its fresh-water haunts. It is a splendid diver 

 and swimmer, using its diving powers to procure 

 its food, which consists of the soft shoots of aquatic 

 plants, small fish, frogs, shellfish, &c. It flies with 

 violent wing-beats, the wings producing a whistling 

 noise as the bird passes. The cry is harsh, like 

 those of the Scaup and Tufted Duck. The back 

 of the head appears to bulge out beyond the usually 

 smooth curve of a Duck's head, this being due to a 

 full, though not long, crest, of which the feathers 

 are, as it were, brushed back beyond the contour 

 of the head itself. The Golden-Eye has the, for 

 a Duck, remarkable habit of at times nesting at a 

 considerable height above the ground, either in 

 a hole in a tree-trunk like a Woodpecker, or on a 

 pollard willow. 



LONG -TAILED DUCK. Plate 97. 17 inches. 

 Head and neck white ; grayish on the face, sides of 

 neck, and on the hind -neck ; black, detached patch 



