288 THE GOLDEN-EVE OR GARROT. 
deposits its eggs in a hollow tree, at some height above the 
ground ; but Naumann says that it frequently breeds in the 
reeds or rushes close to the edge of the water. In the north 
of Finland, in Sweden, and in Norway it nests in hollow trees, 
either near to or at some distance from the water, and very 
frequently in the nest-boxes which the peasants hang up for 
water-fowl to breed in. These are frequently hung up close 
to the peasants’ huts ; and even then the Golden-eye will nest 
inthem. The bottom of the hollow tree or nest-box is neatly 
lined by the old bird with down; and on this soft bed the 
eggs, which vary in number from ten or twelve to seventeen 
or even nineteen, are deposited. When hatched, the young 
birds are carried by the female in her beak down to the ground 
or to the water, one after another being taken down until the 
entire brood is taken in safety from the elevated nesting place ; 
and I have been assured by the peasants that this always 
takes place in the dead of the night. The eggs of this duck 
are dull greyish green, uniform in tinge and rather glossy in 
texture of shell, oval in shape, and in size average about 
2°4 by 1°55 inch; and the down with which the nest is lined 
is sooty greyish white, the tips of the down being rather darker 
than the central portion.” 
THE ONLY original measurements in the flesh that I have of 
this species, are those taken by Stoliczka of his Pamir and 
Kashghar birds, but I have collated these with Macgillivray’s, 
and where this was possible, z.¢., in the case of wings, &c., with 
measurements from the skin of my Lucknow and _ several 
English specimens, and I give the result, quantum valeat :— 
Males —Length, 16'5 to 19'°0; expanse, 28'0 to 32°0 ; wing, 8°6 
to 0°35 ; tail from vent, 3°3 to 4°1 ; tarsus, 1'41 to FOS ; bill 
from gape, I°2 to 1'4; weight, 2 tbs. to 2 Ibs. 10 ozs. 
fremales.—Length, 15°7 to 16°5 ; expanse, 26°3 to 28'0; wing, 
7-5 to. 8:25 ; tail from vent, 3°0 to 3:43 tarsus, 122 teres 
bill from gape, 1°12 to 1:19; weight, 1 lb. 7 ozs. to 1]b. 14 ozs. 
The irides are bright yellow in females and young males, 
reddish or orange yellow i in old males, white or very pale yellow 
in the quite young birds. The naked edges of the eyelids 
reddish dusky; the legs and feet vary from pale yellow in 
the young to intense orange in the old; the colour is always 
bright and pure; the webs (including that of the hind toe), 
nails, and a spot on each of the toe joints, black or dusky; the 
bill in the old males is bluish or greenish black, rather duskier 
and duller coloured in the old females and young, and 
occasionally in these latter, often in the former, and very rarely* 
* No European writer notices this, but I have a full-plumaged and clearly old 
male, with the uniform white wing and scapulars, showing the orange band strongly 
on the bill. Asa rule, however, this is only seen in young males and females, by 
no means always in these latter, and less commonly still in the former. 
