GOLDEN-EYE 307 



of minute animal life. On migration they may stop almost anywhere but as a rule 

 they avoid small ponds, enclosed marshes or shallow sloughs. They often like to 

 use fresh-water basins near the coast at the same time as the nearby salt water. 

 This is especially seen in our New England ponds in December and again as soon as 

 the ice leaves in March or April. 



In general shape this bird is quite different from any other duck except the Bar- 

 row's Golden-eye and the diminutive Buffle-head. The deep head contains in the 

 frontal part near the bill two air chambers which are supposed to aid the bird in 

 diving, but their function is not wholly clear. Two other smaller ones are lined with 

 a sensitive mucous membrane and are associated with the olfactory apparatus. 



Another peculiar characteristic is the large fusiform dilatation at the lower third 

 of the wind-pipe in the males, a structure also seen in the Scoters and some other 

 diving ducks. 



One of the easiest of the diving ducks to identify either upon the water or in the 

 air, the old male can scarcely be confused with any other bird except the Barrow's 

 Golden-eye from which it is difficult to tell it except at close range (see under account 

 of that species). The whistle of the wings often identifies this duck in all ages and 

 plumages but sometimes this cannot be heard and then note must be made of the 

 rapid wing-beats, short chunky head and white patch on the wings. The swimming 

 position with the head well forward is very characteristic and this can be made out 

 at long distances. 



Wariness. Unlike most of the diving ducks this bird has the most acute sense of 

 sight and hearing and is so well able to take care of itself that it needs little or no 

 protection on its wintering grounds. Besides its wariness, which increases much with 

 age and the advance of the season, it is so unsociable that it scarcely ever consorts 

 with surface-feeders, or indeed with other diving ducks; nor is it at all gregarious. 

 In certain favorite places it does at times decoy after a fashion of its own to a few 

 well-made imitations of its kind but it pays little attention to live call-ducks nor will 

 it usually follow up a string of wooden decoys pulled in toward shore on an endless 

 line. 



I do not know that any species shows more difference in wariness between the 

 young and the old. Young groups (broods?) on their arrival from the north, and 

 still more so single young ones, are distinctly stupid. I have oftentimes sculled up 

 to such birds in floats or canoes on open lakes and shot them almost as easily as 

 Ruddy Ducks. Single ones, too, show a distinct bump of curiosity and are likely to 

 come in close to shore to investigate a flock of live call-ducks in front of a shooting- 

 stand, but they usually depart very quickly and will not hang about among them as 

 Scaup or Ruddies often do. I have had these young birds decoy to a "stand " of live 

 ducks in the middle of the night once or twice. An instance of extraordinary tame- 



