HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 867 



Asia and Greenland, yet in Europe some pairs 

 are observed to propagate even in temperate coun- 

 tries. 



Although furnished vnth a remarkably complicated 

 trachea in the male, and the name clang ula, ^ve can- 

 ntDt learn that they ever possess any audible voice. 

 When flushed they rise in silence, and we then only 

 hear, instead of a cry or a quack, the very percep- 

 tible and noisy "whistling of their short and laboring 

 wings, for which reason they are here sometimes 

 called by our gunners the Brass-Eyed Whistlers. In 

 their native haunts they are by nu means shy, allow- 

 ing the sportsman to make a near approach, as if 

 conscious at the same time of their impunity from 

 ordinary peril, for no sooner do they perceive the 

 flash of the gun, or hear the twang of the bow, than 

 they dive with a dexterity which sets the sportsman 

 at defiance, and they continue it so long and with 

 such remarkable success that the aboriginal natives 

 have nick-named them as conjuring or " spirit ducks." 



The food of the Golden Eye, for which they are 

 often seen diving, consists of shell-fish, fry, small rep- 

 tiles, insects, small Crustacea, and tender marine 

 plants. In and near fresh waters they feed on fluvia- 

 tile vegetables, such as the roots of Equisetums, and 

 some species of PoJyijonum. Their flesh, particu- 

 larly that of the young, is generally well flavored, 

 though inferior to that of several other kinds of ducks. 



The Rocky Mountain Golden Eye [Clangula Bar- 

 rovii), also occurs in these regions. The habits of 

 this species, so nearly related to the preceding, are 

 said to be wholly similar. It has hitherto been found 

 only in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. Besides 

 the permanent difference in the bill, this species is 



