iC» IV

SRI ey

CLANGULA GLAUCION.
Golden-eye.

Anas clangula et A. glaucion, Linn. Faun. Suec., p- 43.

—— hyemalis, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso.-Asiat., tom. ii. p. 270.

Clangula chrysophthalmos, Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xii p. 182, pl. 56.
vulgaris, Flem. Hist. of Brit. Anim., p. 126.

leucomelas, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., p. 927.

——— peregrina, Brehm, ibid., p. 929.

——— glaucion, Brehm, ibid., p. 929.

Glaucion clangula, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst., p. 53.

Anas (Glaucion) clangula, Schrenk, Vog. des Amurlandes, p- 481.

 

 

Tuts ornamental species of Diving-Duck is a winter visitant to the British Islands, over the whole of which,
at that season, it is more or less abundantly distributed, sometimes singly, at others in pairs, and not un-
frequently in sufficient numbers to be designated small flocks. It does not confine itself to the shores or
the tidal arms of the sea, but often ascends such rivers as the Thames, the Ribble, and the Annan, and fre-
quently resorts to lakes, large ponds, and other sheets of water ; in most instances, however, the birds met
with in inland situations are females, particularly those that frequent the smaller streams. The gaily attired
males are more shy and keep out of harm’s way with the customary caution of all highly coloured birds. To
watch the stately-swimming old Drakes, with their large green heads and full golden-coloured eye, through
an opera glass is very interesting. When engaged in feeding, their diving-power and the quickness with
which they descend are truly marvellous; and the singular attitudes assumed by the male during the season
of courtship cannot but please and astonish all who have an opportunity of witnessing them. The extra-
ordinary manifestations of love exhibited by the males in the morning and the early part of the day, during
the months of spring, have often been seen in the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent’s Park.
I have attempted to depict one of these ouéré positions in the accompanying Plate, on reference to which it
will be seen that the head is thrown back on the lower part of the back, with the bill at a right angle to the
body, an attitude which is repeatedly assumed as the males approach each other, or slowly pirouette, as it
were, in circles round the female.

The short thick bill of the Golden-eye, its great feet, and dense plumage clearly indicate some peculiarity
in its habits ; and we accordingly find that they are very different from those of the Mallard, the Shoveller, the
Pintail or the Teal. These latter birds live principally on grasses, aquatic plants, and worms; the
Golden-eye, on the other hand, subsists upon aquatic insects, shelled mollusks, and other objects which are
only to be obtained from the bottom of the water, and hence the reason of its continuous immersions ; the throat,
stomach, and gizzard of a female, sent to me by John Michell, Esq., of Forcett Park, Darlington, were
crammed with Notonecta glauca, two species of Coriva, and the larve of a species of gnat.

The Golden-eye does not breed in England. In the higher parts of Norway and Sweden, especially
in Lapland, and Finmark, the nursery of so many of our winter visitants, it breeds in abundance, and of
course in many other northern countries; the distribution of the Golden-eye is, in fact, so extensive
that very few of the other members of the family enjoy a wider range; for although not included by Jerdon
in ‘The Birds of India,’ it inhabits all the countries of Europe, Siberia, northern China, and Japan, is
equally numerous throughout the northern portions of America, and I believe there are few countries within
the arctic circle from which it is absent.

Mr. Dann informed Yarrell that the Golden-eye is ‘‘ numerously spread over the whole of Lapland, as far as
the wooded districts extend, both to the westward range of mountains which separate Norway from Sweden, as
well as the eastern parts. It breeds in small numbers on the coast of Norway, but not from Stavanger
northwards, and on the Dovre Fjeld mountains. It prefers rivers to lakes, particularly the neighbourhood of
falls and rapids. The Lapps and settlers place boxes with an entrance-hole in the trees on the banks of the
rivers and lakes, in which the Golden-eye lays its eggs. Although the birds are always robbed of their eggs
they gain nothing by experience, but seem to have such a predilection for holes in trees, that if such cavities
are to be found, artificial or natural, they always appear to prefer them to any other locality. . . . There
have been many speculations and opinions as to the mode the Golden-eye adopts to carry its young down from
the holes of the trees wherein they are hatched, and which are frequently ten or twelve feet from the ground
and at some distance from the water. That the bird does transport them is beyond doubt. The Lapps,
whom I frequently interrogated, were ignorant of it, beyond the mere fact of their carrying them ; and there