74 
GOLDEN-EYE DUCK. 
walking, without any object in view, along the banks of the Ohio, between 
Shippingport and Louisville, I have often seen the Golden-eyes, fishing 
almost beneath me, when, although I had a gun, they would suffer me to 
approach within a hundred paces. But at -other times, if I crawled or hid 
myself in any way while advancing towards them, with a wish to fire at 
them, they would, as if perfectly aware of my intentions, keep at a distance 
of fully two hundred yards. On the former occasion they would follow their 
avocations quite unconcernedly ; while on the latter, one of the flock would 
remain above as if to give intimation of the least appearance of danger. If, 
in the first instance, I fired my gun at them, they would^all dive with the 
celerity of lightning, but on emerging, would shake their wings as if in 
defiance. But if far away on the stream, when I fired at them, instead of 
diving, they would all at once stretch their necks, bend their bodies over the 
water, and paddle off with their broad webbed feet, until the air would 
resound with the smart whistling of their wings, and away they would 
speed, quite out of sight, up the river. In this part of the country, they 
are generally known by the name of “ Whistlers.” 
I have observed that birds of this species rarely go to the shores to rest 
until late in the’evening, and even then they retire to secluded rocks, slight- 
ly elevated above the surface, or to the margins of sand-bars, well protected 
by surrounding waters. In either case, it is extremely difficult for a man 
to get near them ; but it is different with the sly racoon, which I have on 
several occasions surprised in the dawn, feeding on one which it had caught 
under night. Yet, on some of the bays of our sea-coasts, the Whistlers are 
easily enticed to alight by the coarsest representations of their figures in 
wooden floats, and are shot while they pass and repass over the place to 
assure themselves that what they see is actually a bird of their own kind. 
This mode is successfully followed in the bay and harbour of Boston in 
Massachusetts, as well as farther to the eastward. 
The Golden-eye is rarely if ever seen in the company of any other species 
than those which are, like itself, expert divers ; such, for example, as the 
Mergansers, or the Buffel-headed Duck ; and it is very rare to see all the 
individuals of a flock immersed at once. Sometimes, when suddenly sur- 
prised, they immediately dive, and do not rise again until quite out of gun- 
shot. When wounded, it is next to impossible to catch them : for their 
power of remaining under water is most surprising, and the sooner one 
gives up the chase the better. 
The Golden-eye Ducks manifest a propensity to adhere to a place which 
they find productive, and that to a most extraordinary degree. One day 
while approaching the shallow fording-place of Canoe creek, near Hender- 
son, in Kentucky, I observed five Whistlers fishing and swimming about. 
