I04 British Diving Ducks 
to consist of shell-fish of all kinds, Crustacea, fish and water insects. This is generally 
procured in water of no great depth, but Dr. Deichmann says they feed in the Greenland 
fjords in several fathoms of water. 
Barrow's Golden-Eye arrive at their breeding places about the end of March, in flocks, 
and at once proceed to pair. I have been unable to discover any ornithologist who has seen 
the courtship display of this species, but I have little doubt that when we are able to 
procure specimens alive from Iceland, and keep them in good health, we shall find that it is 
much the same as that of the Common Golden-Eye. The nest is usually placed in a hole 
in the bank of a stream flowing into a lake, in a hole in the lava rocks close to the water, 
or on some low island under bushes of dwarf willow, dwarf birch, amongst coarse grass or 
low scrub, such as Empetrum nigrum or Azalea prommbens. I found two nests just 
tucked in under large stones, and not two feet above the level of the stream. They are also 
said to nest in the turf walls of the sheep-shelters. 
In America the nest has been found in a hole in a dead Douglas fir, 50 feet from the 
ground (Macoun, Cat. Caitadian Birds, p. 100), and as it nests in the mountain lakes of the 
Rockies, it is probable that such a place is a favourite site. The nest itself is somewhat 
carelessly put together, the bottom layer being moss interwoven with twigs of dwarf birch 
and willow, coarse grass. Azalea procumbens and E^npetrum nigrum. Two nests found by 
myself were somewhat broad and flat, with very little hollows in the middle. In them were 
9 and 10 eggs respectively, but the bird generally lays 12 to 14 eggs, exactly similar in 
colour to the common species, only much larger. 
Riemschneider gives us an account of the places in which he found their nests at 
Myvatn. He says : — 
" The nest was always placed in more or less of a hollow, in natural hollows of the rocks, in covered- 
over cracks in the lava, or, as already mentioned, in the outer walls of peat shelters, erected for sheep, 
where a few blocks of peat have been taken out, to form a nesting place, and even, and that not seldom, 
inside the shelter, in which case the food-rack or a place like it would serve as a nesting place ; as exit 
for flight the door of the shelter would in such a case be used. Such customs have given rise to the 
Iceland names for the species. In the natural hollows, holes in the rocks, fissures, &c., the nest is placed 
now in the foreground, now so far inside that you could not reach to it from the entrance opening, 
but were obliged to lift off the stones covering it for this purpose. Whilst as a rule the position of 
the nest is to be found approaching the level of the surface of the ground, I saw a nest in the 
Kalvastrond which was built in a hollow in the lava at more than twice a man's height. In the 
nest-trough, which was formed to begin with in the food-racks of the stalls, by pulling together 
dry grass stalks and other remnants of food round the nest, there was a very ample, delicate lining 
of whitish down, which had a very small admixture of fine, dry parts of plants. The eggs, 12 to 15 
in number, and only exceptionally more, are distinguished from other ducks' eggs by their pure, 
blue-green colour, are rather bulgy in shape, and have a smooth, not very shining shell." 
The eggs of this species are said to be far superior for the table to those of any other 
ducks in Iceland. 
The female Barrow's Golden- Eye surrounds her eggs with down in a fashion similar 
to other ducks, and, like other species, is most assiduous in the care and upbringing of her 
family. In all the general habits, such as the flocking on lakes and ultimate journey to the 
coast, and life there, this species seems to be similar to the Common Golden- Eye. They 
are shy birds in winter, seldom giving the gunner a chance. 
In Iceland their enemies seem to be ^\c\i2ivdson s Skwdi, Storcorarius parasiticus 1.., 
