GOLDENEYE. 
3 
struggles of the clog had given rise to the impression that the horse had fallen at the discharge of the gun. 
Tlie fowl, on examination, proved to he the adult pair so frequently observed resorting to the pool ; a week later 
I remarked that this favourite station was again tenanted l)y birds in the same stage of plumage. 
An adult male in perfect plumage is figured on the Plate ; the specimen from which the sketch is taken 
was shot on Ileigham Sounds, in the east of Norfolk, in March 1873. An immature male, killed on Ilickling 
Broad in April 1873, is also shown ; this bird exhibits a state of plumage that is probably assumed after the 
first moult and carried for one or two years. I have had no opportunities of ascertaining from personal 
observation the ago at which the male puts on the full adult dress. The white patch on the brown head 
of the immature male appears to have escaped the notice of most writers. MaeGillivray states that “young 
males are distinguishable by their greater size and darker tints from juvenile females.” While progressing 
towards maturity he says that they have “ white feathers intermixed with black before the eyes : this 
remark probably applies to the white patch in its earliest stage, but is scarcely descriptive of the appearance 
of a young male at the close of the first winter. Dresser alludes to a young male as resembling the female, 
but with rather more white on the wings. It is strange that this distinction should not have been observed by 
such an experienced sportsman as Charles St. John, who remarks, when referring to this species, “ both female 
and young male are without the white spot under the eye.” 
