GOLDEN-EYE. 479 



scapulars, dusky, tipt with brown ; feet, dull orange ; across 

 the vent, a band of cinereous ; tongue, covered with the same 

 velvety down as the male. 



The young birds of the first season very much resemble the 

 females, but may generally be distinguished by the white spot, 

 or at least its rudiments, which mark the corner of the mouth ; 

 yet, in some cases, even this is variable, both old and young 

 male birds occasionally wanting the spot. 



From an examination of many individuals of this species of 

 both sexes, I have very little doubt that the morillon of Eng- 

 lish writers {Anas glaucion) is nothing more than the young 

 male of the golden-eye. 



The conformation of the trachea or windpipe of the male 

 of this species is singular. Nearly about its middle it swells 

 out to at least five times its common diameter, the concentric 

 hoops or rings of which this part is formed falling obliquely 

 into one another when the windpipe is relaxed; but when 

 stretched, this part swells out to its full size, the rings being 

 then drawn apart ; this expansion extends for about three 

 inches ; three more below this, it again forms itself into a hard 

 cartilaginous shell of an irregular figure, and nearly as large 

 as a walnut ; from the bottom of this labyrinth, as it has been 

 called, the trachea branches off to the two lobes of the lungs ; 

 that branch which goes to the left lobe being three times the dia- 

 meter of the right. The female has nothing of all this. The 

 intestines measure five feet in length, and are large and thick. 



I have examined many individuals of this species, of both 

 sexes and in various stages of colour, and can therefore affirm 

 with certainty that the foregoing descriptions are correct. 

 Europeans have differed greatly in their accounts of this bird, 

 from finding males in the same garb as the females, and other 

 full plumaged males destitute of the spot of white on the cheek; 

 but all these individuals bear such evident marks of belong- 

 ing to one peculiar species, that no judicious naturalist, with 

 all these varieties before him, can long hesitate to pronounce 

 them the same. 



