GOLDEN-EYE. 



211 



is a greyish ring ; the lower part of the neck and breast mottled dusky 

 and cinereous : back dusky, dashed with cinereous ; the coverts of the 

 wings and quills like the male, but the black parts of a dusky colour ; 

 the fore part of the legs and toes yellowish ; the hind part and webs 

 black. The young male birds are like the female in plumage, but are 

 larger. 



We have taken no small pains in dissecting a great many of this 

 species which appeared to be females, but proved males ; and all such 

 possessed the swelling in the trachea, and the lahyrinth of the Golden- 

 Eye. It is probable the male of this species is many years arriving at 

 full maturity, for it is rarely found with the full black head, and the 

 white spot at the corner of the mouth. The sexes are readily dis- 

 covered in their first feathers by passing the finger and thumb down 

 the windpipe ; the enlargement of the trachea is easily felt. 



* " The windpipe of the Golden-eye," says Dr. Latham, " is of a 

 curious and wonderful structure, for the labyrinth is not only of a 

 different and much more complicated form than any other, but a 

 singular enlargement takes place about the middle of the trachea itself." 

 The ventricose part consists of the same cartilaginous rings as the rest 

 of the windpipe, and in fact is only a great enlargement of the same 

 structure, being at least four times the diameter of any other part, or 

 three inches or more in circumference, and about three inches in length. 

 This part is so formed by the inequality of its cartilaginous annula- 

 tions, and intermediate membranes, that it is not only capable of con- 

 tracting to little more than an inch in length, but likewise of com- 

 pression, the under part being in the contracted state considerably 

 flattened. The labyrinthic part at the bottom of the trachea is of so 

 extraordinary a form, and so complicated a structure, that no descrip- 

 tion could give an adequate idea of it ; suffice it to say, that it is very 

 large, with a bony arch on one side, nearly transverse to the trachea ; 

 but for the perfect comprehension of it, we refer to the figure in the 

 Linnaean Transactions, iv. pi. 15. fig. 1. 2. p. 118. 



This bird, in its immature state, is the Morillon (A. glaucion,) 

 of various authors. In all the males we examined of this and other 

 varieties, (if the change of plumage from the young to the adult state 

 may be so called,) the very remarkable trachea of the Golden-Eye 

 appeared ; and very little variation of plumage was observed in the 

 female ; they had the same truss-like shape ; the form of the bill and 

 the legs was similar, and the shape and number of feathers in the tail 

 were invariably the same. It visits us in winter in small flocks, feeding 



