66 
GOLDEN-EYE. 
it again forms itself into a hard cai'tilaginous 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, ofi* 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 color, and can therefore affirm, 
with certainty, that the foregoing descriptions are correct. Eu- 
ropeans 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 varie- 
ties before him, can long hesitate to pronounce them the same. 
