GOLDENEYE.
species on laud unless disabled by wounds. Another pair, also male and female, in immature plumage,
were seen for three or four days after the 8th of May, 1SS3, on Hkkling Broad; the former exhibited the
white pateb on the brown bend most conspicuously.
With the exception of the handsome old males which are invariably sought after, punt-shooters have little
or no inducement to molest this species, its market value being exceedingly low. Par the table it is utterly
useless, the nature of the food consumed (minute shell-fish of various kinds, as well as the innumerable
insects that inhabit both fresh, brackish, and salt water) rendering the flesh exceedingly strong and fishy*.
In order to procure specimens in various stages of plumage, I frequently worked up to and examined the
parlies of Goldeueyes met wilh while gunning on the northern and eastern coasts. Though the adult males
will be found the most wary of the web-footed tribe, the younger birds usually fall easy victims, for the most
part evincing little distrust till repeatedly alarmed. When wounded few fowl arc able to make more rapid
progress through the water; aided by their large and powerful feet and small though sturdy pinions, they
prove exceedingly hard to recover. Towards the end of December 1B81 an immature male I was anxious to
secure was lost on llickling broad, after haling been disabled by a shot, and on the following morning a
careful search was instituted round the edge of the hills. At last the bird was detected squatted on the side of
a marsh-wall, my attention being Drat attracted by the brightness of the pale yellow eye in the midst of a
tuft of dead thistles.
To attempt to give all the local names by which the Golden eye is known to the gunners on various parts
of the coast is utterly impossible. In many districts the females and young of several of the diving fowl
are (Opposed to belong to one species, and necessarily much confusion exists. In the cast of Norfolk 1 have
usually heard the immature birds termed black and white Tokers, while the adult males are honoured with
the title of "Old Hard went hers." Goldeueyes when on wing maybe heard for some considerable distance,
the sharp beat of their strong flight-feathers producing a sound that has led to the names of Whistler and
Kattlewings being bestowed on the species.
While shooting in the east of Ross-shire it was a rare occurrence to pass through the upper waters of the
Dornoch Firth without finding a fine old drake or two about some of the larger pools between Bonar Bridge
and luverau. Having procured a few as specimens, I noticed it was seldom that their favourite quarters were long
deserted, the spots vacated by those killed being speedily tilled by fresh comers. Boring the early part of
the winter of IStJS 1 had made repeated attempts to obtain a shot at an adult pair that frequented the Kyle
below Invershin ; the vigilance of the drake, however, enabled them to evade all dangers for a time. Early
on the morning of the itlh of December, w bile making our way down towards the firth, a thick haze was
encountered, drifting slowly in from the east. Suddenly through a break in the mist a couple of fowl were
detected diving busily close to the south shore in the large pool above Bonar Bridge ; favoured by the shelter
of a point of land extending some distance into the water, the punt was worked fairly within range of the
big gun before an alarm was raised. On rising simultaneously- to the surface after a lengthened dive the birds
sprung at once on wing, and crossing each other in the act of turning, a successful shot was obtained, the
pair falling dead within a yard or two of the hank. For a few moments the smoke mingling with the fog
hung heavily in wreaths in front of the guo, and it was not till neuring the fowl that a sound resembling
a low groan caught my ear, and at once drew attention to the shore, where a horse, apparently dying, was
discerned through the haze. On landing, the true state of ninths was so >n ascertained ; the animal, doubtless
swept away and drowned in the Upper part of the glen by a recent Hood, had eventually stranded at the entrance
to the pool; by the side of the carcass, and now in his last gasp, lay an unfortunate collie, that had evidently
been tearing at the fiesh when struck down by the shot. At the First glance in the imperfect light the
' The. stomach •>( u female TllflJI nkot 11th of January, IMS, enntuiuod al leul a handful of imall that Imgs nf about half an inch iu
length, id-*! a (jimnlily Lit vegetable remain*, a* mil M erarel and J-and. The iinecth were ptaWMj (agiturrd in brueknh waler.
GOLDEN EYE.
struggles of the dog bad given rise to the impression that the horse had fallen at the discharge of the guo.
The fowl, on examination, proved to be the adult pair so frequently observed resorting to the pool; a week later
I remarked that this favourite station was again tenanted by birds iu the same stage of plumage.
An adult male in perfect plumage is figured on the Plate; the specimen from which the sketch is taken
was shot on lfeigbam Sounds, in the cast of Norfolk, in March 1873. An immature male, killed on Hiekling
Broad in April 1873, is also shown; this bird exhibits a state of plumage that is probably assumed after the
first moult and carried for one or two years. I have had no opportunities of ascertaining from personal
observation the age at which the male puts on the full adult dress. The white paleh on the brown head
of the immature male appears to have escaped the notice of most writers. MacGillivray states that "young
males arc distinguishable by their greater size and darker tints from juvenile females." While progressing
towards maturity he says that they have "white feathers intermixed with black before the eyes:" this
remark probably applies to the white patch in its earliest stage, hut is scarcely descriptive of the appearance
of a young male at the close of the first winter. Dresser alludes to a young male as resembling the female,
but with rather more white on the wings. It is strange that this distinction should not hale been observed by
such an experienced spoilsman as Charles Si, John, w ho remarks, when referring to ibis species, " both female
and young male arc without the white spot under the eye."