THE GOLDEN-EYE. 
265 
matter of no small satisfaction to have ascertained, nearly 
beyond doubt, that the Golden-eye, like the Grebes and some 
other birds, eludes its enemies by entirely submerging every 
part except the bill, — for in that manner alone could it have so 
long escaped our search. No doubt many a well-worn story 
of a wounded bird drowning itself by holding on to the weeds 
at the bottom of the water may be thus accounted for. 
There is, however, good reason to believe that the bird does 
occasionally thus hold on to the bottom weeds to escape 
detection. An instance of its being seen during the act of 
voluntary submergence came to my knowledge in October 1868, 
when a woman brought me alive a female Golden-eye which 
she had caught about one hour before in a burn which runs 
out of the loch of Quoy house.* Her attention was first 
attracted by a frequent splashing in the water, and by the eager 
behaviour of a dog which was running up and down the bank, 
evidently on the watch for something — a large fish, the woman 
imagined : hastening to the spot where it last disappeared, 
she indistinctly saw some dark object near the bottom of the 
channel, when — still supposing it to be a fish, for the ripple 
was very strong — she plunged in her hand, and to her surprise 
brought up a duck. On my questioning her, she told me that 
it held quite tightly to the weeds, and came up feet foremost.” 
From this, and also from the fact that the head was toward 
the upper part of the stream, there can be no doubt that the 
bird was holding by its bill, though whether in such case the 
bill was above the surface or not may be uncertain. The 
duck’s plumage was so saturated with wet that it could not fly 
even when brought to me. This was probably, in the first 
instance, the effect of the extremely heavy rains ; otherwise, not 
being wounded, it could easily have avoided the dog by taking 
wing. I washed it well, and put it into a box with dry straw, 
where it soon got itself to rights. When the bird was irritated 
or alarmed, it had a way of raising the feathers of the whole 
head, causing that part to appear disproportionately large. 
* Pronounced as if spelt Kev^s. 
