214 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 



especially delighting in estuaries. It usually arrives 

 in the British Islands in October, and remains in 

 them until the following April or May. It is not 

 so gregarious as some of the other Ducks, and 

 generally assembles in parties rather than in flocks, 

 the larger gatherings being caused by exceptional 

 circumstances. Its habits very closely resemble 

 those of allied birds. It is seldom seen on the 

 land, and there walks with the waddling gait 

 peculiar to most Ducks ; on the water, however, 

 it is active and graceful enough, swimming well, 

 and diving with great celerity, usually seeking by 

 this means to escape from danger. The note of 

 this Duck is a low croaking kurr, uttered both 

 when the bird is flying and when at rest. Its 

 food consists of crustaceans, molluscs, small fishes, 

 and various water plants and weeds. Most of this 

 is obtained by diving ; and whilst a flock of birds is 

 feeding, several individuals keep watch, all never 

 diving together. 



The evidence for this Duck having bred in 

 Scotland, is neither reliable nor conclusive. The 

 Golden-eye breeds throughout the Arctic and sub- 

 Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and America, up 

 to the limits of the growth of trees : its winter 

 range extends to the tropics. It retires to its 

 northern summer haunts with the first signs of 

 spring. The favourite breeding resorts of this 

 Duck are tracts of more open forest country, 

 where the woods are full of swamps and lakes, 



