GOLDEN EYE. 
231 
®De, broadly finned ; sides of the bill, obliquely dcntated ; 
totigug^ covered above with a fine thick velvety down 
a whitish colour. 
The full plumaged female is seventeen inches in 
wn^th, and twenty-seven innbes in extent; bill, brown, 
"faugc near the tip ; head and part of the neck, brown, 
!''■ very dark drab, bounded below by a riny of white ; 
felow that the neck is ash, tipt with white; rest of the 
'ower parts, white ; win;fs, dusky, six of the secondaries 
^td their greater coverts, pure white, except the tips 
file last, which are touched with dusky spots ; rest 
the winn'-coverts, (duereons, mixed with whitish ; 
Wck and scapulars, dusky, tipt with brown ; feet, dull 
''I'ange ; across the vent, a band of cinereous ; tongue, 
•kivered with the same velvety down as the male. 
The young birds of the first season very much 
J'esemble the females, but may generally be distinguished 
“y the white spot, or at least its rudiments, which marks 
W'c corner of the mouth. Yet, in some c.ases, even this 
vuri.able, both old and young male birds occasionally 
"anting the spot. 
From an examination of many individmils of this 
Species of both sexes, I have very little doubt that the 
"'ovillon of English writers (anas glaucion') is nothing 
"fore than the young m.ale of the golden-eye. 
The conformation of the trachea, or windpipe, of the 
"f'de of this species, is singular: Nearly about its 
'"'ddle it swells out to at least five times its common 
'*'aineter, the concentric hoops or rings, of which this 
P*>rt is formed, falling obliquely into one another when 
^*'e wind|)ipe is relaxed ; but when stretched, this part 
""'ells out to its full size, the rings being then drawn 
"pirrt; this expansion extends for about three inches ; 
*'hree more below this, it again forms itself into a hard 
®^rtilaginous shell of an irregular figure, and nearly as 
^'■ge as a walnut ; from the bottom of this labyrinth, 
"" it has been called, the trachea branches off to the 
*'"’0 lobes of the lungs ; that branch which goes to the 
®ft lobe being three times the diameter of the right. 
