THE GOLDEN-EYED DUCKS. 
23 
Water wh makes a great splashing in the 
niost PY '*■ '■^‘'idily take wing, as it is a 
Duck-! swimmer and diver. It is one of the shyest of 
sound ’ ^.K difficult to shoot. It makes the same grating 
and Tnft fellows during flight, as the Scaup 
lives al It is a clumsy walker on the land, and 
kind water, feeding on nearly every 
Dowprc f ii'id vegetable food that its unrivalled 
youm? f diving enable it to find at the bottom : small fish, 
leaves f insects, the seeds or buds or tender 
“ R ^ nothing comes amiss to it.” 
histor^*^’f K “the most remarkable fact in the 
on fj, ^ P Golden-eye is its habit of occasionally perching 
hole f branch of some forest-tree, and of discovering a 
2- holl*^ sometimes quite a small one, but leading to 
WopH ?'’®ide, where it deposits eggs on the rotten chips of 
Without any nest, like a Woodpecker.” 
of aT* before stated by Mr. Seebohm, the nest is in the hole 
Place'^f^’ where this is not available, the Golden-eye will 
Sompi" * ground or on the tops of pollard-willows, 
twent ^ ^ pDced at a height of twelve, and even 
Voun Jt foet from the ground, and the old bird conveys the 
Mr D ^ water, holding it between its bill and its breast, 
birds n° I^oad writes to me; — “I have observed these 
keene ii^ water lakes in Scotland as late as May, and 
Year them in every month of the 
in June. The ‘Knipa,’ as it is called, is well-known 
in Tunp'^'^'s Dalsland, about 59° N. lat. I saw a pair 
they ^ shown the place wherein 
fifteen f *1*6 previous year. It was in a hole, about 
in? in main fork of an old black poplar stand- 
and Finis beside the water’s edge.” In Lapland 
the Pni i"*^ natives put up boxes for the convenience of 
confiding bTr7s^^’ ’’Cgularly pilfer the eggs of the too 
all^Da^^^*^^’ recorded above, but down, as in the case of 
selected ’ ^ lining to the hole or nesting-place 
SSs. From ten to thirteen in number, but many 
more are 
