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Golden lye, Albin. l. /. 9^. 



ArSJ, Zooh 2. p. 567. ?i, 486r 

 . ' Bn'L ZoqL .^. «, .^76* 



This fpecies of Duck rather exceeds the common lize, meafuring 

 nearly tweilty inclies in length, and weighing thirty ounces. This 

 relates to the male only, the female being much fmaller. The latter 

 differs likewife very confiderably in the colour of its plumage, which 

 is principally of an obfcure brown, varied with black and afh. The 

 head is dark and reddifb, the breaft and belly white ; the middle quill- 

 ftathers are alfo whice, but the reft of the wings, except the coverts and 

 fcapulars, in which the grey prevails, is black. The tail is of the laft- 

 nicnlioncd colour; the legs dufky. 



The Golden Eye is of the migratory kind, and vifits us only in the 

 winter, at which feafon it is feen in fmall flocks on many of our fea- 

 coafts. In the fpring thefe birds retire northward, remaining, during 

 the breeding feafon, in Ruffia, Norway, and Sweden. In America 

 it is found throughout the fummer in Hudfon's Bay, where it is 

 obferved to frequent frefh water lakes. Its principal food confifts of 

 fliell-fifh, frogs, and other reptiles, mice, &c. The neft, which is 

 cornpofed of grafs, and lined with feathers, is of a rounded form, the 

 eggs from feven to ten in number, and white. Linnaeus tells us, 

 t'ns fpecies foraetimes builds in trees, a circumllance rather fingular, 

 but neverthelcfs, we believe, corre6fly ftated, as fome other fpeciea 

 of the duck tribe have been known to build occafionally in the fame 

 or fimilar fitnations. 



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