Golden-Eye 
87 
Palaearctic and Nearctic regions, and, generally speaking, not beyond the limits of the 
growth of conifers. As winter approaches it moves south to more temperate climes, even 
going to the northern coasts of Africa. It seems to reach the Orkneys, the Shetlands, 
and the more northerly parts of Scotland first in its migration to these islands, and here 
occasionally it comes as early as the latter part of August. As the autumn proceeds more 
and more Golden-Eyes come in, principally, no doubt, from the Scandinavian lakes, where 
they have bred. Mr. Dresser, speaking of their winter migrations to this country, says 
" old males are seldom seen," a statement that is quite correct when applied to England 
and the greater part of Scotland and Ireland, but not quite accurate when applied to certain 
estuaries in the two last-named. I had been shooting ducks for many years before I found 
out how locally the ducks of different ages were distributed. Up to 1886 I had not killed 
twenty old male Golden-Eyes, and considered them, comparatively speaking, rare ; but a 
more extended acquaintance with these birds in 1890-92 in the Moray and Beauly Firths, 
where adults of both sexes are exceeding abundant, caused me to alter my opinion. Except 
on these two firths, we may say that all the way from Aberdeen round the east coast of 
England and Scotland to Dorset in the south, Golden-Eyes are fairly common locally, and 
that about 80 or 90 per cent, are immature birds. The percentage of old males is not 
exactly small, but they are rarely killed by coast gunners. I have seen many and killed a few 
old males on both the Tay and the Eden estuaries, where, as usual, the immatures pre- 
dominate ; but south of this the chances of shooting an old male are not good. Along 
the Welsh coasts Golden-Eyes are common in winter, but here again Mr. Forrest {Fauna 
of N. Wales, p. 289) describes the old males as ''curiously rare." As we go north again, 
Golden-Eyes increase on the Lancashire and Cumberland coasts, and it may seem strange 
that the only Golden-Eye I have seen in the last-named county were three old males feeding 
in the river opposite Netherby (December 191 1). 
In the Solway immatures are common, and so on at intervals northward to the Outer 
Hebrides, where in winter adults are fairly numerous both in N. Uist, S. Uist, and 
Benbecula. They are also common on the west coast of Mull, and in all the sea lochs 
northward to Cape Wrath. In Orkney and Shetland I think that immatures do not out- 
number the adults more than four to one, but in no parts of those islands is the Golden-Eye 
very abundant in winter. By this I mean the winter resident birds, for both in the spring 
and the autumn migrations I have seen large packs of the birds, over a hundred in number, 
that were evidently the assemblage of parties going north-east or south. Mr. H. W. 
Robinson mentions having seen a pack of some hundreds of Golden-Eye (all adults) on 
Loch Stenness in spring [Field), but I have not seen so many in Orkney. 
The largest number of Golden-Eye I have seen together was on January 5, 1 891, on 
the Beauly Firth. The weather was severe, and all the Moray Firth Golden-Eye seem to 
have joined the Beauly Firth birds on this day. As I poled my punt up towards Bunchrew, 
large parties of Golden-Eye kept making short flights ahead, and not far from Bunchrew 
I obtained a shot at Wigeon, and at the report of the gun— very loud in these enclosed 
waters — an immense flight of Golden-Eye, all adults as far as I could see, and numbering 
quite 1000 birds, passed me going seaward. The noise produced by the wings of this 
immense flock was remarkable. I do not remember that I either saw or killed a single 
immature Golden-Eye during the three years I was resident at Fort George, on the Moray 
