314 BUCEPHALA CLANGULA 



larvae of caddis-flies and predacious diving beetles (U.S. Biological Survey). Such 

 food explains occasional good-tasting meat in autumn before the regular coarse 

 winter diet begins. 



Courtship and Nesting. One of the most beautiful sights of late winter or early 

 spring is a flock of these striking birds going through their elaborate display antics in 

 all their gorgeous dress (see Plate 69) . This is perhaps the prettiest performance of any 

 of the ducks and shows some affinity to the action of the Pochards and the Goosander. 

 It was first described by Dr. F. Briiggemann (1876) from captive specimens. Later, 

 Gilpin (1880) noticed it in Nova Scotia and more recently it has been studied carefully 

 by C. W. Townsend (1910), Brewster (1911), Millais (1913), and Boase (1924). I 

 have seen it many times at Wenham Lake in March and April and once on October 

 16 in a pair of adult birds, but this last, of course, was unusual. One is tempted to 

 dwell a little on this activity of the Golden-eye, for it is very interesting and subject 

 to a good deal of individual variation, but space forbids and I can only sketch its 

 bare outlines. Brewster's paper is well worth reading. 



The males, often in excess of the females, may be seen swimming about in an ex- 

 cited manner with their head-feathers very much puffed out, but often only one or 

 two birds at a time (out of a considerable group) are in full show. At times the male 

 swims with the head thrust well forward (the bowsprit pose of Brewster), dipping the 

 bill in the water at intervals. This may or may not lead to the complete display, 

 when the neck is stretched straight up, the bill pointing to the zenith and opened to 

 emit the harsh, rasping double note described before under Voice. Then the head is 

 quickly snapped back until the back of it touches the rump, where it rests for a 

 small fraction of a second and is then snapped forward very quickly to the normal 

 position. As the head comes back the bird often (but sometimes only once out of 

 fifteen or twenty times) shoots itself forward by a rapid back kick of both its bright 

 red legs, which results in a spurt of water showing behind the bird for a distance of 

 several feet. This jet of water can be seen on a calm surface a long way off, but one 

 often sees a good deal of display without the "kick" part. There are also other pos- 

 tures which are indulged in at this time and one of them does not seem to have been 

 described. Once on April 11,1 was watching a flock of nineteen Golden-eyes in "the 

 cove" at Wenham Lake. All of these, except two males and a female, were diving 

 and feeding, but these three were in especially active display. Besides the ordinary 

 actions just portrayed I saw the males with head held stiffly forward (bowsprit 

 pose) for a second or two, suddenly shoot backward for a distance of one or two feet. 

 I cannot imagine how this was done for there was no way of observing the feet. But 

 this curious action was repeated many times and I feel sure that it must have had 

 some significance. 



The female often goes through a mild bobbing of the head while all this is going on 



