364 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



ceaselessly all day long. Their food con- 

 sists of shrimps, small shell-fish and 

 marine insects, besides, to a lesser degree, 

 the sea-grass and other vegetable matter. 

 This latter they often carry up from the 

 bottom and eat at their leisure on the 

 surface. I would not have thought them 

 sufficiently agile to catch any of the true 

 fishes, but one day last winter (Dec. 5th), 

 while watching a Golden-eye busily diving 

 among the ice on a small (inland) pool, 



I was surprised to see it catch several fish. 

 Every third or fourth dive, it brought up 

 a small silvery fish sticklebacks probably 

 which it spent some time tugging at and 

 chewing on the surface before finally 

 swallowing." 



Seebohm has the following general 

 remarks on the habits of this species : 



II The Golden-eye chooses for its breeding- 

 grounds a combination of forest, lake, 

 river and marsh, and when the ice drives 

 it southwards it prefers a similar locality ; 

 but if such be not easily found it whiles 

 away the winter months on the sea-coast. 

 It is remarkable for its noisy flight, its 

 rapidly moved wings whistling in the 

 wind as it passes overhead. It makes 

 also a great splashing in the water when 

 it rises, but does not readily take wing, 



