BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



The Goldeneye is said generally to place its nest 

 in a hole in a hollow tree, if it can find one. So 

 fond are these birds of breeding in holes, that 

 Yarrell says the inhabitants of Norway and Lapland 

 place boxes with an entrance-hole in the trees on 

 the banks of rivers and lakes in which the Golden- 

 eye lays its eggs, which of course are robbed ; but 

 in spite of this the birds constantly return to the 

 same place. Meyer says the nests are occasionally 

 placed amongst rushes and coarse grass. Like many 

 other of the swimming birds the Goldeneye appears 

 to line its nest with down from its own body. 



The Goldeneye is easily kept tame, and the male 

 bird, being one of our handsomest and most con- 

 spicuous water birds, is a great ornament to a pond : 

 the bill of the adult male is bluish black ; the irides 

 golden yellow ; the head and neck dark glossy green ; 

 behind the base of the beak on the side of the face is 

 a conspicuous white spot ; the lower part of the neck, 

 the breast, scapulars, belly and under tail-coverts 

 are white ; from the scapulars are some rather 

 longish feathers hanging down over the wing, the 

 hindermost of these are white with a black margin 

 on the outer web, the more forward ones are white 

 in the centre, with two black margins; the back, 

 rump and tail-coverts are black; the tertials are 

 black, as are some of the lesser wing-coverts ; the 

 rest of the wing-coverts and the secondary quills are 

 white ; the primary quills and some of their coverts 



