I 
G 0 L D E N E Y E. 
CLANGULJ GLAUCION. 
Though much time was spent in the attempt, I never succeeded in verifying the fact of this species 
breeding in Great Britain. The female I repeatedly observed during summer on remote Highland lochs, 
and on more than one occasion a bird was detected flying from old and weather-beaten pine-woods, where 
doubtless her nest was concealed ; sweeping rapidly beneath the branches in the shade thrown by the dense 
timber, it was by no means easy to keep the small grey-tinted fowl in view. For several days subsequent to the 
11th of June, 1869, I observed a male, at times in company with a female, disporting himself on the waters at 
the east end of Loch Slyn in Boss-shire. While watching the pair the female on one occasion disappeared 
without attracting attention ; shortly after, however, she came in sight, skimming from the plantation of 
Scotch firs standing to the east of the loch, and rejoined the drake, when both birds, evidently disturbed by the 
approach of the punt, rose on wing and left the water. The male evinced a decided aversion to permit 
of a close inspection ; judging, however, from the nearest view I was enabled to obtain, he appeared to be in 
full adult plumage. This is the only instance where the mature drake came under my notice later than the 
first week in April. 
This species is common during autumn, winter, and spring all round the Scotch coasts, as well as on the 
inland lochs. The numbers decrease somewhat towards the southern counties of England, though I have 
occasionally known several small parties and single birds to remain for some weeks about the muddy harbours 
and estuaries of the Sussex and Hampshire coasts. I find by my notes for 1868 that Goldeneyes had 
arrived and taken up their quarters along the east coasts of Boss-shire by the 22nd of October, a few stragglers 
having been noticed a week or ten days earlier. There is very little difference in the date at which these 
birds reach the Norfolk waters; and' though seldom seen so early off the Sussex coast, I remarked a pair in 
immature plumage resorting almost constantly to the pool in Marazion Marsh, near Penzance, from the 23rd to 
the 29th of October, 1880. 
Compared with the number of immature birds and females, the full-plumaged drakes are exceedingly 
scarce in all parts of the country ; it is seldom they are observed earlier than the middle or latter end of 
November. But few of these attractive birds are driven to our shores till severe weather accompanied by 
protracted frosts has set in ; occasionally in open winters I have failed to notice a single specimen in perfect 
adult dress, though numbers in the various intermediate stages might be met with. 
The immature drakes frequently remain late on our coasts ; on April 1st, 1869, while gunning on the 
Dornoch Firth, I fell in with a small party of half a dozen Goldeneyes near Morangie. After firing the 
big gun, I discovered that the whole were males, the dead and wounded consisting of one adult and 
five immature, the latter all in much the same stages of plumage. On the 28th of April, 1873, a pair (an 
immature male and female) were shot on Hickling Broad ; these birds rose from the bank of one of the hills 
on which they were resting when alarmed by the punt. On no other occasion have I fallen in with this 
