COMMON GARROT. 26'9 



It is a native both of Europe and North America ; com- 

 ing to us, as well as to the United States^ only in winter ; 

 retiring northward in me spring, with the majority of 

 the other ducks, to breed. VFilson seems to have known 

 little or nothing of the manners of the American race; 

 although he says it is a "^ well known" bird in various 

 parts of the United States, both along the sea coast and 

 about the lakes and rivers of the interior. In regard to 

 its manners in this part of the world, we cannot have a 

 better authority than Mr. Selby, whose two admirable 

 volumes * are by far the best of all those which have 

 hitherto appeared on our native ornithology : they are 

 not, indeed, very sentimental, or remarkably poetical ; 

 but they give that solid information, which the orni- 

 thologist more especially wants. When in full plumage, 

 Mr. Selby observes, " the male golden-eye, in this 

 country, is rather of rare occurrence ; the great body of 

 those that visit our coasts being either females or young 

 males, both of Avhich are generally known by the name 

 of Morillons, and as such were described by the old 

 ornithologists as a distinct species. The number of 

 this species which annually visit the British coast, is 

 regulated by the severity or mildness of the season ; 

 being always most abundant under the form.er state of 

 weather. This remark is equally applicable to all the 

 xiovxhem AnatidcB ; the extent of their migration south- 

 ward being in proportion to the greater or less extent of 

 those regions to the northward from which they have 

 been frozen out of food. The golden-eye is usually seen 

 in small flocks or societies, upon our lakes and larger 

 rivers, and occasionally upon the coasts, near estuaries. 

 It flies with great strength and rapidity, giving intima- 

 tion of its approach by the whistHng noise of its wings 

 as its passes through the air. It is remarkably active 

 on the water, swimming and diving with equal facility. 

 From the quickness with which it plunges, and the dis- 

 tance to which it dives, it is very difficult to kill when 



* Illustrations of British Ornithology, 2 vols. Svo. Longman and Co.; sold 

 separately from the folio Atlas of plates. 



