THE AMERICAN GOLDEN-EYE. 



* 'We watch the hunters creeping near 

 Or crouching in the silvery grasses; 



Their gleaming guns our greatest fear, 

 As high o'erhead our wild flock passes. 



"But we are of the air, and speed 



lyike meteors dropping from the sky; 



He's 'the man behind the gun' indeed 

 Who can fairly wing a Golden-eye." 



FOR beauty this bird will compare, 

 favorably with any of the fam- 

 ily except the Wood Duck, 

 whose colors are more various 

 and brilliant. Whistler is the name by 

 which it is more commonly known, 

 from the peculiar noise of wings made 

 while flying. In spite of its short, 

 heavy body and small wings, it covers 

 immense distances, ninety miles an hour 

 being the speed credited to it by Audu- 

 bon, who, however, was not always ac- 

 curate in his calculations. It is an 

 abundant species throughout the. fur 

 countries, where it frequents the rivers 

 and fresh-water lakes in great numbers. 

 It breeds as far north as Alaska, where, 

 on the Yukon, it nests about the middle 

 of June. Like the Wood Duck, it makes 

 its nest in hollow trees and decayed 

 trunks. This consists of grass, leaves, 

 and moss, lined with down from the 

 bird's breast. The eggs are from six 

 to ten in number, and ashy green in 

 color. 



The Golden-eye is a winter visitant 

 to Illinois. On Long Island it is better 

 known among the hunters as the 

 ''Whistler," and by others it is also 

 called the "Great-head," from its beau- 



tifully rich and thickly crested head. On 

 that island it is said to be a not very 

 abundant species, arriving there in com- 

 pany with other migratory Ducks. Mr. 

 Girand met with it in the fall and spring 

 on the Delaware and in Chesapeake Bay. 

 Its food consists of small Shell and other 

 Fish, which it procures by diving. In 

 the fall the flesh of the Golden-eye is 

 very palatable. It is very shy and is 

 decoyed with great difficulty. In stormy 

 weather it often takes shelter in the 

 coves with the Scoup Duck, and there 

 it may be more readily killed. Naturally 

 the Golden-eye is chiefly seen in com- 

 pany with the Buffle-head, the Mergan- 

 ser, and other species that are expert 

 divers like itself. When wounded, un- 

 less badly hurt, its power of diving and 

 remaining under water is said to be so 

 remarkable that it cannot be taken. 



The Golden-eyes always have a senti- 

 nel on the Avatch to announce the ap- 

 proach of an enemy. They have been 

 very little studied in their haunts. The 

 word Clang-ula indicates in some degree 

 the tone of their voices. They swim 

 under water like fish, out of which they 

 can bound upward and make off with 

 prodigious cn^--'' 



GOLDEN ROD. 



A lady who has lately been making a 

 visit in the West was telling the other 

 day about the forlorn aspect of the 

 country out that way to her. "Even 

 the Golden-rod," she said; "you can't 

 imagine how scraggly and poor it looks, 

 compared with our magnificent flowers 

 along the road here. I wonder what 

 makes the Western Golden-rod so infe- 

 rior." The very next day there arrived 

 at her house a relative whom she had 

 been visiting when she was in the West. 

 He sat on the veranda, and looked in- 



dulgently — even admiringly — at the 

 landscape, and praised its elements of 

 beauty. But as his eye ran along the 

 roadside near by, he said: "But there 

 is one thing that we are ahead of you 

 in — you have no such splendid Golden- 

 rod here as we have out West! The 

 Golden-rod growing along that road, 

 now, is tame and poor compared with 

 ours." What a blessed thing it is that 

 the gold of our own waysides is richer 

 than" the gold of all other waysides! 



lO'i 



