62 



GOLDEN EYE. 



AJVAS CLANGULA. 

 [Plate LXVIL— Fig. 6.] 



he Gairat, Bkiss. VI, p. 416. 27. pi. 37. 3.— Buff. IX, p. W2.—Aret. Zool. JVo. 486.— Lath. 



/ Syn. Ill, J). 535 — Peaie's Mueeum, JVo. 3931. 



THIS Duck is well kpown in Europe, and in various regions 

 of the United States, both along the sea coast and about the lakes 

 and rivers of the interior. It associates in small parties, and may 

 easily be known by the vigorous whistling of its wings as it passes 

 through the air. It swims and dives well; but seldom walks on 

 shore, and then in a waddling awkward manner. Feeding chiefly 

 on shell fish, small fry, &c. their flesh is less esteemed than that 

 of the preceding. In the United States they are only winter visi- 

 tors, leaving us again in the month of April, being then on their 

 passage to the north to breed. They are said to build, like the 

 Wood Dack, in hollow trees. 



The Golden-eye is nineteen inches long, and twenty-nine in 

 extent, and weighs on an average about two pounds; the bill is 

 black, short, rising considerably up in the forehead; the plumage 

 of the head and part of the neck is somewhat tumid, and of a dark 

 green with violet reflections, marked near the corner of the mouth 

 with an oval spot of white; the irides are golden yellow; rest of 

 the neck, breast, and whole lower parts white, except the flanks, 

 which are dusky; back and wings black; over the latter a broad 

 bed of white extends from the middle of tlie lesser coverts to the 

 extremity of the secondaries; the exterior scapulars are also white; 

 tail hoary brown; rump and tail coverts black; legs and toes red- 

 dish orange; webs very large, and of a dark purplish brown; hind 



