84 
GOLDEN-EYE. 
in extent, and weighs on an average about two pounds ; the 
bill is black, short, rising considerably up in the forehead ; the 
plumage of the head and part of the neck is somewhat tumid, 
and of a dark green, with violet reflections, marked near the 
corner of the mouth with an oval spot of white ; the irides are 
golden yellow ; rest of the neck, breast, and whole lower parts, 
white, except the flanks, which are dusky ; back and wings, 
black ; over the latter a broad bed of white extends from the 
middle of the lesser coverts to the extremity of the seconda- 
ries ; the exterior scapulars are also white ; tail, hoary brown ; 
rump and tail-coverts, black ; legs and toes, reddish orange ; 
webs very large, and of a dark purplish brown ; hind toe and 
exterior edge of the inner one, broadly finned; sides of the 
bill, obliquely dentated ; tongue, covered above with a fine 
thick velvety down, of a whitish colour. 
The full plumaged female is seventeen inches in length, and 
twenty-seven inches in extent ; bill, brown, orange near the 
tip ; head and part of the neck, brown, or very dark drab, 
bounded below by a ring of white ; below that the neck is ash, 
tipt with white ; rest of the lower parts, white ; wings, dusky, 
six of the secondaries and their greater coverts, pure white, 
except the tips of the last, which are touched with dusky 
spots ; rest of the wing-coverts, cinereous, mixed with whitish ; 
back and scapulars, dusky, tipt with brown ; feet, dull orange ; 
across the vent, a band of cinereous ; tongue, covered with the 
same velvety down as the male. 
The young birds of the first season very much resemble the 
females, but may generally be distinguished by the white spot, 
or at least its rudiments, which marks the corner of the mouth. 
Yet, in some cases, even this is variable, both old and young 
male birds occasionally wanting the spot. 
From an examination of many individuals of this species of 
both sexes, I have very little doubt that the morillon of Eng- 
lish writers {Anas glaucion)^ is nothing more than the young 
male of the goldemeye. 
The conformation of the trachea, or windpipe, of the male 
