GOLDEN-EYE. 
85 
of this species, is singular : Nearly about its middle it swells 
out to at least five times its common diameter, the concentric 
hoops or rings, of which this part is formed, falling obliquely 
into one another when the windpipe is relaxed; but when 
stretched, this part swells out to its full size, the rings being 
then drawn apart; this expansion extends for about three 
inches ; three more below this, it again forms itself into a hard 
cartilaginous shell of an irregular figure, and nearly as large 
as a walnut ; from the bottom of this labyrinth, as it has been 
called, the trachea branches off to the two lobes of the lungs ; 
that branch which goes to the left lobe being three times the 
diameter of the right. The female has nothing of all this. 
The intestines measure five feet in length, and are large and 
thick. 
I have examined many individuals of this species, of both 
sexes and in various stages of colour, and can therefore affirm, 
with certainty, that the foregoing descriptions are correct. 
Europeans have differed greatly in their accounts of this bird, 
from finding males in the same garb as the females, and other 
full plumaged males destitute of the spot of white on the cheek ; 
but all these individuals bear such evident marks of belonging 
to one peculiar species, that no judicious naturalist, with all 
these varieties before him, can long hesitate to pronounce them 
the same. 
