The Buffel-Headed Goldeneye. i6i 



Border Moors as — young females, average, i-lb. 4-oz. or i-lb. 5-oz. ; adult females 

 i-lb. 12-OZ. ; young drakes 2-lb. 2-oz. to 2-lb. 4-oz. 



Hybrids between the Goldeneye and Smew have been recorded on the Con- 

 tinent. Two of these are beautifully figured and described by Professor Rudolf 

 Blasius, in the " Monatsschrift des Deutschen Vereins zum Schutze der Vogelwelt," 

 for 1887. These partake equally of the characters of both parents. 



Family— ANA TID^. 



Buffel-Headed Goldeneye. 



Clangula albeola, LiNN. 



THE Buffel or Buffalo-headed Duck, so called from its thick clumpy head, is 

 found generally through North America, breeding in the more northerly 

 parts and migrating to winter as far south as the West Indies, Cuba and Mexico. 

 It is a rare visitor to Greenland ; Reinhardt records an adult female got near 

 Godthaab about 1830. 



The Buffel-headed Duck has occurred at least on four occasions in 

 England and Scotland. It was first included in the British list by Donovan, from 

 an example which cannot be traced, and which must have occurred prior to the 

 year 1819. The last occurrence, an adult male, was shot on Bessingby beck, near 

 Bridlington, in the winter of 1864-5, by Richard Morris, of that town, and recorded 

 by me in the " Zoologist," 1865, p. 9659, this is now in the collection of Mr. 

 T. Whitaker, of Rainworth Lodge. In the severe winter of 1893-4, when passing 

 through Hull from station to station, I saw presumably an adult female amongst some 

 Goldeneyes hanging in the front of a fish shop. It was a mu.ch smaller bird than the 

 female Goldeneye, and had a conspicuous white longitudinal patch behind the eye. 

 Probably it was shot in the district or brought in from sea in a fishing smack. 



Vol. IV. 2D 



