110 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



have figured bears to him. Having thought thus much 

 necessary on this disputed point, I leave each to form his 

 own opinion on the facts and reasoning produced. 



GOLDEN-EYE. 



^NAS CLJ2NGULA. 

 [Plate X.] 



Le Garrot, Briss. vi. p. 416. 27. pi. 37. fig. 2. — Buff. 

 IX. p. 222. — Arct. Zool. No. 486. — Lath. Si/n. iii. 

 p. 535. — Le Garrot, PL Enl. S02.—3Iorrilhn, Jirct. 

 Zool. II. p. 300. F. — Br. Zool. No. 276, 277— Lath. 

 Supp. II. p. 535, No. 26.— Ind. Orn. p. 867, No. S7; 

 A. glancion, Id. p. SG8, No. 88. — Gmel. Syst. i. p. 

 523, No. 23; Id. p. 525, No. 26. — Temm. Man. d' Orn. 

 I. p. 870. — Bewick, ii. p. 330. — J. Doughty''s Col- 

 lection. 



This Duck is well known in Europe, and in various 

 regions of the United States, both along the seacoast and 

 about the lakes and rivers of the interior. It associates in 

 small parties, and may easily be known by the vigorous 

 whistling of its wings, as it passes through the air. It 

 swims and dives well; but seldom walks on shore, and then 

 in a waddling awkward manner. Feeding chiefly on shell 

 fish, small fry, &c., their flesh is less esteemed than that of 

 the preceding. In the United States they are only winter 

 visitors, leaving us again in the month of April, being then 

 on their passage to the north to breed. They are said to 

 build, like the wood duck, in hollow trees. 



The Golden-eye is nineteen incheslong, and twenty-nine 

 in extent, and weighs on an average about two pounds; the 

 bill is black, short, rising considerably up in the forehead; 

 the plumage of the head and part of our neck is somewhat 

 tumid, and of a dark green with violet reflections, marked 

 near the corner of the mouth with an oval spot of white; 

 the irides are golden yellow; rest of the neck, breast, and 

 whole lower parts white, except the flanks, which are 

 dusky; back and wings black; over the latter a broad bed 

 of white extends from the middle of the lesser coverts to 

 the extremity of the secondaries; the exterior scapulars are 

 also white; tail hoary brown; rump and tail coverts black; 

 legs and toes reddish orange; webs very large, and of a 



dark purplish brown; hind toe and exterior edge of the 

 inner one broadly finned; sides of the bill obliquely den- 

 tated; tongue covered above with a fine thick velvetty 

 down of a whitish colour. 



The full plumaged female is seventeen inches in length, 

 and twenty-seven inches in extent; bill brown, orange near 

 the tip; head and part of the neck brown, or very dark 

 drab, bounded below bj' a ring of white; below that the 

 neck is ash, tipt with white; rest of the lower parts white; 

 wings dusky, six of the secondaries and their greater 

 coverts pure white, except the tips of the last, which are 

 touched with dusky spots; rest of the wing coverts cinerous, 

 mixed with whitish; back and scapulars dusky, tipt with 

 brown; feet dull orange; across the vent a band of cine- 

 rous; tongue covered with the same velvetty down as the 

 male. 



The young birds of the first season very much resemble 

 the females; but may generally be distinguished by the 

 white spot, or at least its rudiments, which marks the cor- 

 ner of the mouth. Yet, in some cases, even this is variable, 

 both oldandyoungmalebirdsoccasionally wantingthe spot. 



From an examination of many individuals of this species 

 of both sexes, I have very little doubt that the Moirillon of 

 English writers {,dnas gluiicion) is nQih.mgmor& than the 

 young male of the Golden-eye. 



The conformation of the trachea, or windpipe of the 

 male of this species, is singular. Nearly about its middle 

 it swells out to at least five times its common diameter, the 

 concentric hoops or rings, of which this part is formed, fall- 

 ing obliquely into one another when the windpipe is relax- 

 ed; but when stretched, this part swells out to its full size, 

 rings being then drawn apart; this expansion extends for 

 about three inches; three more below this it again forms 

 itself into a hard cartilaginous shell, of an irregular figure, 

 and nearly as large as a walnut; from the bottom of this 

 labyrinth, as it has been called, the trachea branches off to 

 the two lobes of the lungs; that branch which goes to the 

 left lobe being three times the diameter of the right. The 

 female has nothing of all this. The intestines measure five 

 feet in length, and are large and thick. 



I have examined many individuals of this species, of 

 both sexes and in various stages of colour, and can therefore 

 affirm, with certain!}', that the foregoing descriptions are 

 correct. Europeans have dificred greatly in their accounts 

 of tliis bird, from finding males in the same garb as the 

 females; and other full plumaged males destitute of the 

 spot of white on the cheek; but all these individuals bear 

 such evident marks of belonging to one peculiar species, 

 that no judicious naturalist, with all these varieties before , 

 him, can long hesitate to pronounce them the same. 



