424 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



Golden-eye never attempts to bore a hole for itself, but selects 

 one ready for the purpose, often the deserted nest of a Black 

 Woodpecker. The Lapp and Finnish peasants are in the habit 

 of placing boxes and hollow trunks for this bird to breed in, 

 and from which they regularly and judiciously remove the 

 eggs. The partiality of this bird for a nesting site near a water- 

 fall or quick-flowing stream has been noticed by several ob- 

 servers. The eggs are usually from ten to thirteen in number, 

 but exceptionally as many as nineteen have been found. They 

 are bright grayish green, smooth in texture, and somewhat glossy, 

 and measure on an average a "3 inches in length by i'6 inch in 

 breadth, Down tufts moderate and pale lavender-gray in colour, 

 with paler and obscure centres. The young are conveyed to the 

 water one by one, pressed between the female's bill and her 

 breast. Only one brood is reared in the year. 



Diagnostic Characters. — (Nuptial plumage), FuUgula, 

 with the head and upper neck metallic green, with a white patch 

 at the base of the bill, not extending above the eye, and with 

 the scapulary region striped with white (adult male) ; with the 

 axillaries brown, with a white alar speculum, and with the under 

 tail coverts white (adult female). Length, 16 to 19 inches. 



