GOLDEN EYE. 231 



one, broadly finned ; sides of the bill, obliquely dentated j 

 tongue, covered above with a fine thick velvety down 

 of a whitish colour. 



The full plumaged female is seventeen inches in 

 length, and twenty-seven inches in extent ; bill, brown, 

 orange near the tip ; head and part of the neck, brown, 

 or very dark drab, bounded below by a ring of white ; 

 below that the neck is ash, tipt with white; rest of the 

 lower parts, white ; wings, dusky, six of the secondaries 

 and their greater coverts, pure white, except the tips 

 of the last, which are touched with dusky spots ; rest 

 of the wing-coverts, cinereous, mixed with whitish ; 

 back and scapulars, dusky, tipt with brown ; feet, dull 

 orange ; across the vent, a band of cinereous ; tongue, 

 covered with the same velvety down as the male. 



The young birds of the first season very much 

 resemble the females, but may generally be distinguished 

 by the white spot, or at least its rudiments, which marks 

 the corner of the mouth. Yet, in some cases, even this 

 is variable, both old and young male birds occasionally 

 wanting the spot. 



From an examination of many individuals of this 

 species of both sexes, I have very little doubt that the 

 morillon of English writers (anas glaucion) is nothing 

 more than the young male of the golden-eye. 



The conformation of the trachea, or windpipe, of the 

 male of this species, is singular : Nearly about its 

 middle it swells out to at least five times its common 

 diameter, the concentric hoops or rings, of which this 

 part is formed, falling obliquely into one another when 

 the windpipe is relaxed ; but when stretched, this part 

 swells out to its full size, the rings being then drawn 

 apart ; this expansion extends for about three inches ; 

 three more below this, it again forms itself into a hard 

 cartilaginous Shell of an irregular figure, and nearly as 

 large as a walnut ; from the bottom of this labyrinth, 

 as it has been called, the trachea branches off to the 

 two lobes of the lungs ; that branch which goes to the 

 left lobe being three times the diameter of the right. 



