158 Order VIII 



cover near water or among boulders ; the eggs resemble 

 those of the Pochard, but are hardly so green. The 

 whole head and neck is black in the male, rufous in 

 the female ; in both sexes the belly is white, the wing- 

 bar white surrounded by black. But in the drake the 

 back is marked with crescent-shaped black lines on a 

 white ground, whereas in the duck it is grey and brown. 

 Moreover she has a broad white band round the base 

 of the bill. 



The Golden-eye (Olaucion dangula), which ranges 

 from Scandinavia, Russia and north Germany, within 

 the limits of tree growth, westward to northern America 

 and certainly eastward to Mongolia, comes to Britain 

 about October and penetrates far up our larger rivers 

 and to the neighbouring lakes. Abundant though it is 

 from that month onward, and though it occasionally 

 remains till May, this species has never been known to 

 breed with us. It nests in hollow trees often using 

 old Woodpecker's holes or in boxes prepared for it by 

 the inhabitants of the north, and lays on a bed of down 

 some dozen eggs of a light but bright green colour. 

 The flight is noisy, the note rather harsh, the food that 

 usual in sea-ducks. The name Golden-eye refers to the 

 colour of the iris, but some of its nearest allies have 

 it of the same tint, though in the Pochard it is red. 

 The general colour of the male is black, with white 

 neck, lower parts, large wing-patch, and shoulder- 

 feathers; the female has the black parts brown, 

 except on the wing, and lacks the distinct white patch 

 on the cheeks of the male. 



The Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hy emails) is a de- 

 cidedly Arctic species found all round the Polar regions 

 of the north, which breeds moreover in the Faeroes 



