3^8 BRITISH BIRDS* 
alfo the adjoining long tertial feathers, and thofe on 
the greater part of the back : the firft fourteen pri- 
mary quills, with all the outfi.de edge of the wing, 
including the ridge and a portion of the coverts, are 
brownifli black: the middle part of the wing is 
white, croffed by a narrow black ftripe, which is 
formed by the tips of the leffer coverts : tail dark 
hoary brown : legs fhort, of a reddifli yellow co- 
lour, with the webs dulky : the inner and hinder 
toes are furnifhed with lateral webs ; on the latter 
thefe webs are large and flapped. Willoughby fays 
“ the windpipe hath a labyrinth at the divarication, 
and befides, above fwells out into a belly or puff- 
like cavity.” 
This is the defcription of an individual adult 
male, in which, as to the identity of the fex and 
fpecies, no one can be miflaken : but as younger 
males have been met with, bearing in every refpeft 
the fame plumage as the old ones, except in hav- 
ing no white fpots before the eyes, and other (fup- 
pofed) young males have alfo been feen both with 
and without thofe white fpots, though with a female- 
looking garb, and their bills tipped with orange, 
like that of the Morillon ; it is not only uncertain 
at what age the Golden-.eye attains his full drefs, 
but alfo, from the varied appearances, as well in 
thefe, as in thofe fuppofed to be females, it is 
doubtful whether two diflind: fpecies are not con- 
founded in^ one, and the young of one fpecies de^* 
