94 
British Diving Ducks 
them by the peasants, and these are frequented by breeding females even when in the 
close proximity of human habitations, or villages. In Germany, where this species has 
bred, it has made its nest very scantily put together in reeds, and this carelessness of 
architecture is probably due to its want of practice in nest-making and the absence of 
suitable holes. In that country, too, it has been found in willow swamps. In Iceland, 
where a few pairs breed, they must lay their eggs in holes in the steep banks of rivers, as 
the Icelandic Golden-Eye does, or in cavities in the lava rocks. In Pomerania the nest 
has been found in the holes made by the Black Woodpecker in trees close to lakes, and 
in other places from Holstein to the Baltic (Naumann). Both this species, as well as the 
Mandarin and Wood Duck of North America, can squeeze into the holes made by large 
Woodpeckers, and seem to show a preference for small entrances to their nesting sites. i 
W. Bar describes {Ornith. Monatsschr., p. 250, 1891) five nests found in hollow oaks in 
the neighbourhood of Forsthauses, Haidehaus, near Danlik, whilst in some districts of 
the Baltic Golden-Eyes are known as " Birch " ducks, owing to their fondness for nesting 
in these trees. Mr. H. E. Dresser says {Birds of Europe, p. 600) : — 
"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 the 
water-fowl to breed in, and which are called by the Swedes ' Holkar,' and by the Finns ' Pontto.' 
These are frequently hung up close to the peasants' huts ; and even there the Golden-Eye will nest in 
them. 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 10 or 12 to 17, or even 19, are deposited." 
Seebohm, in describing the nesting-places in Siberia, says : — 
" But the most remarkable thing in the history of Fuligula clangula is that they sometimes sit on the 
bare branches of a tree in a wood, and if they have discovered a hole in the trunk (or branch), even if 
it be quite a narrow one, perhaps merely leading to an inner chamber, will lay an egg in it on the perished 
wood without any nest at all — just like a Woodpecker. These nesting-places are often at a considerable 
height above the ground. In the valley of the Petschora I have seen one which was at least 7.6 ms. 
above ground, and one in the valley of the Yenisei about half that height." 
W. Brewster, in describing a breeding place of the American Golden-Eye {Auk, 1900, 
p. 207), says the eggs are laid at the bottom of a hollow on the dried chips of wood, and 
that down is only added below the eggs and round them when the full complement has 
been laid. Sometimes the eggs, which are the same as those of the European bird in size, 
colour, and number, are packed in two layers on the top of each other. 
The usual number of eggs is from 8 to 12, but there are several instances of 16 and 17, 
and even of 19 eggs being laid. In Norway, where the nest is regularly robbed, one egg 
is always left in, and with this inducement the female will go on laying for a long time, 
until, it is said by the peasants, she will lay as many as 30 or 40 eggs. 
First eggs are often laid as early as the end of April, but fresh ones may still be found 
until late in June. Mr. Blaauw tells us that the period of incubation is only twenty days 
(Naumann says twenty-two days) ; a remarkably short one. Seebohm, Dresser, Naumann, 
and a host of writers who have followed them, state that " 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 
^ It is well to remember this in making convenient nesting-boxes for these three species. 
