CLANGULA GLAUCIOX, 253 



Macgillivray describes the cry o£ this bird as " a mere grunting croak, 

 and is never heard to any considerable distance ; the epithet Clangula 

 given to it by the earlier ornithologists had reference, not to its voice, but 

 to the whistling of its wings/'' 



The number of the flocks seems to vary greatly ; here in India no large 

 ones are likely to be seen, but it will be noted that, even on the Indus, 

 Stoker and Yerbury met with small flocks, not pairs and single birds, and, 

 where common, it is said sometimes to assemble in flocks of some hundreds. 



Normally the Golden-eye breeds in hollows in trees, or, less often, in 

 holes in the ground, in banks or rocks, but sometimes it makes a nest 

 on the ground in the same manner as most other ducks. In the latter 

 case the nest is usually rather scanty and ill-formed but with a thick 

 lining. 



Seebohm, writing of this species, observes : — " But the most remarkable 

 fact in the history of the Golden-eye is its habit of occasionally perching 

 on the bare branch of some forest tree, and of discovering a hole in the 

 trunk, sometimes quite a small one, but leading to a hollow inside, where 

 it deposits its eggs on the rotten chips of wood without any nest, like a 

 Woodpecker. These breeding-places are sometimes a considerable distance 

 from the ground. In the valley of the Petchora I have seen one at least 

 twenty-five feet from the ground ; but one I saw in the valley of the 

 Yenesay was not more than half as high. It has been seen to convey its 

 young one by one down to the water pressed between its bill and its 

 breast." 



Dresser's remarks re the l)reeding of the Golden-eye have been already 

 quoted by Hume, and I again reproduce part of them : — 



" In the north of Finland, in Sweden, and in Norway, it nests in hollow 

 trees, either near to or at some distance from the water, and very 

 frequently in the nest- boxes which the peasants hang up for water-fowls 

 to breed in. These are frequently hung up close to the peasants' huts ; 

 and even then the Golden-eye will nest in them. The bottom of a hollow 

 tree or nest-box is neatly lined with down ; and on this soft bed the eggs, 

 which vary in number from ten or twelve to seventeen or even nineteen, 

 are deposited. When hatched, the young birds are carried by the female 

 in her beak down to the ground, or to the water^ one after another being 

 taken down until the whole brood is taken in safety from the elevated 

 breeding-place, and I have been assured by the peasants that this always 

 takes place in the dead of the night. The eggs of this duck are dull 

 greyish-green, uniform in tinge, and rather glossy in texture of shell, oval 



