GOLDEN-EYE DUCK. 3(33 



walking, without any object in view, along the banks of the Ohio, between 

 Shippingport and Louisville, I have often seen the Golden-eyes, fishing 

 almost beneath me, when, although I had a gun, they would suffer me to 

 approach within a hundred paces. But at other times, if I crawled or hid 

 myself in any way while advancing towards them, with a wish to fire at 

 them, they would, as if perfectly aware of my intentions, keep at a distance 

 of fully two hundred yards. On the former occasion they would follow their 

 avocations quite unconcernedly; while on the latter, one of the flock would 

 remain above as if to give intimation of the least appearance of danger. If, 

 in the first instance, I fired my gun at them, they would all dive with the 

 celerity of lightning, but on emerging, would shake their wings as if in 

 defiance. But if far away on the stream, when I fired at them, instead of 

 diving, they would all at once stretch their necks, bend their bodies over the 

 water, and paddle off with their broad webbed feet, until the air would 

 resound with the smart whistling of their wings, and away they would 

 speed, quite out of sight, up the river. In this part of the country, they 

 are generally known by the name of "Whistlers." 



I have observed that birds of this species rarely go to the shores to rest 

 until late in the evening, and even then they retire to secluded rocks, slight- 

 ly elevated above the surface, or to the margins of sand-bars, well protected 

 by surrounding waters. In either case, it is extremely difficult for a man to 

 get near them; but it is different with the sly racoon, which I have on 

 several occasions surprised in the dawn, feeding on one which it had caught 

 under night. Yet, on some of the bays of our sea-coasts, the Whistlers are 

 easily enticed to alight by the coarsest representations of their figures in 

 wooden floats, and are shot while they pass and repass over the place to 

 assure themselves that what they see is actually a bird of their own kind. 

 This mode is successfully followed in the bay and harbour of Boston in 

 Massachusetts, as well as farther to the eastward. 



The Golden-eye is rarely if ever seen in the company of any other species 

 than those which are, like itself, expert divers; such, for example, as the 

 Mergansers, or the Buffel-headed Duck; and it is very rare to see all the 

 individuals of a flock immersed at once. Sometimes, when suddenly sur- 

 prised, they immediately dive, and do not rise again until quite out of gun- 

 shot. When wounded, it is next to impossible to catch them; for their 

 power of remaining under water is most surprising, and the sooner one 

 gives up the chase the better. 



The Golden-eye Ducks manifest a propensity to adhere to a place which 

 they find productive, and that to a most extraordinary degree. One day, 

 while approaching the shallow fording-place of Canoe creek, near Hender- 

 son, in Kentucky, I observed five Whistlers fishing and swimming about. 



