LX. 

 ANAS CLANGULA. (linn.) 



GoLDEN-EYE-DuCK. 



The eggs of a Duck were brought to us whilst in Norway 

 by a boy, who said he had taken them from a hole in a 

 tree ; this surprised us a good deal, but far more so, when, 

 upon going to the place, we found the hole was merely that 

 of a Woodpecker, and so small that I should have thought it 

 quite impossible for so large a bird to enter ; it was about 

 twelve feet from the ground, and about a foot in diameter 

 inside ; the entrance so narrow as hardly to admit the hand, 

 and lined with the soft down of the bird. This we examined 

 very closely, being exceedingly anxious to ascertain the spe- 

 cies, and hoping to find some feather that might determine 

 it, but in vain. The boy had told us, upon our first inqui- 

 ries, that after having taken in succession five eggs from the 

 nest, the bird had forsaken it. We had cross-questioned him 

 in every way, and were about to give up our inquiries in de- 

 spair, when it turned out that the absence of the poor bird 

 was owing to his having taken it upon the nest, and carried 

 it home to dinner. Thither we followed him, in hopes that 

 some of the feathers might still exist, which, to our great 

 joy, we found to be the case, together with the wings, and 

 from them readily ascertained that our eggs were those of the 

 Golden-eye-Duck, which is said by Linnaeus to breed in trees ; 

 and is, I should imagine, the bird spoken of by Acerbi, in his 

 travels through Sweden, which, he says, breeds abundantly 

 on the river Tornea, in boxes erected by the natives for the 

 reception of its eggs, and which he calls the Goosander. — 

 Fig. 1, of the Plate, represents the egg of the Golden-eye- 

 Buck, which is of a much deeper and brighter colour than 

 those of the other species of Anas which I have seen. 



