The Goldeneye. ^57 



numter one in thirty, being usually seen single, or one and two together, and 

 often in very rough, weather, or during a " blast," (the Lincolnshire term for 

 continuous frost and snow). 



The Goldeneye is a very active and expert diver, I have often watched them 

 through a glass at no great distance from the shore. In diving the whole body 

 is thrown forwards, adding considerable momentum to the plunge; they remain 

 immersed for the greater part of a minute, forty-five to fifty seconds, rising 

 very suddenly like a bladder, popping up nearly at the point of descent. When 

 on the feed they remain only a few seconds on the surface and then descend, 

 spending four-fifths of their time under water. Mr. Haigh says " in Merionethshire 

 it is common both on the coast and on inland waters, old males, however, do not 

 number one in forty or fifty, although on the spring passage the disparity is not 

 quite so great. It appears in October and leaves in March, some lingering to the 

 middle of April. It is a very silent bird, the only note I have heard being a low 

 croak. The food consists almost entirely of shrimps and other small crustaceans, 

 and seldom fish. It is rather a clumsy diver, going down with a considerable 

 splash, and remaining under twenty to thirty seconds." 



The summer breeding range of the Goldeneye extends from Iceland, across 

 the whole of Northern, (as far as lat. 70° north), and parts of Central Europe, and 

 across Siberia. It nests regularly also near Astrakhan, but is not common. 



The Goldeneye appears to be a very rare visitor to the Faeroes. In the Shetlands, 

 Saxby, at the end of July, saw a female and four young on the Loch of Belmont, 

 from which locality, he says, eggs have been brought to him closely resembling 

 those figured by Mr. Hewitson. Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley, on the 

 authority of Mr. Crichton, record a pair seen on July 5th, i860, on the Loch of 

 Stennis, in Orkney. Single birds are also recorded as seen on lochs in the north 

 of Scotland late in May and in summer, and in the Spey district, so that altogether 

 there is a strong probability that a few pair remain to nest in Scotland. 



In the summer of 1895, a pair of Goldeneyes bred in a plantation on the 

 margin of Fewston reservoir, near Otley, Yorkshire, and the young, four in 

 number, were seen repeatedly near their nesting-place. In this case the female 

 proved a wounded bird unable to fly. A pair of Goldeneyes nested under similar 

 circumstances in 1891, in a plantation on the margin of Swinsby reservoir. Both 

 these instances are given on the authority of Mr. Storey, of Otley, (" Zoologist," 



1895, p. 449)- 



In winter the Goldeneye is a common visitor to all parts of the British Islands, 

 both on the coast and to inland waters ; also to the open European waters, immense 

 numbers, according to Mr. Hartert, frequent the Hafts, the vast fresh- water basins 



Vol. IV. 2C 



