Golden-eye (Anas clangula, Linn.; Le Garrot, Buff.) s.
The weight of this species varies from twenty-six ounces to two pounds. The length is nineteen inches, and the breadth thirty-one. The bill is bluish-black, short, thick, and elevated at the base; the head large, slightly crested, and black, or rather of a glossy bottle-green, with violet reflections; a large white spot is placed on the space on each side between the corners of the mouth and the eyes, the irides of which are of a golden-yellow; the throat, and a small portion of the upper part of the neck, are of a sooty or velvet-black; the lower, to the shoulders, the breast, belly, and vent, white; but some of the side-feathers, and those which cover the thighs, are tipped with black; the scapulars white and deep black; of the latter colour are also the adjoining long tertial feathers, and those on the greater part of the back; the first fourteen primary quills, with all the outside edge of the wing, including the ridge and a portion of the coverts, are brownish black; the middle part of the wing is white, crossed by a narrow black stripe, which is formed by the tips of the lesser coverts; tail dark, hoary brown; legs short, of a reddish yellow colour, with the webs dusky; the inner and hinder toes are furnished with lateral webs; on the latter these webs are large and flapped. Willoughby says, “the windpipe hath a labyrinth at the divarication, and besides, above swells out into a belly or puff-like cavity.”
These birds do not congregate in large flocks, nor are they numerous on the British shores, or on the lakes in the interior. They are late in taking their departure northward in the spring, the specimens before mentioned being shot in April. In their flight they make they air whistle with the vigorous quick strokes of their wings; they are excellent divers, and seldom set foot on the shore, upon which, it is said, they walk with great apparent difficulty, and, except in the breeding season, only repair to it for the purpose of taking their repose.
The attempts which were made by M. Baillon to domesticate these birds, he informs the Count de Buffon, quite failed of success.
An extraordinary occurrence took place, March, 1810, near Drumburgh, a fisherman, placed a flounder-net in the river Eden, which is subject to the flux and reflux of the tide, and on his returning to take up his net, instead of finding fish, he found it loaded with wild ducks; during his absence, a fleet of these birds had alighted below the net, and on the flowing of the tide, were carried, from the contraction of the channel, with great impetuosity into the net, and were drowned. He caught one hundred and seventy golden-eyed wild ducks, supposed to be from the Orkneys, as very rarely any of that species frequent that part of the country.—Bewick.
Golden Oriole (Oriolus galbula, Linn.), s.
This is the only species ever found in England, a few instances of which only are on record. It is about the size of a blackbird: length nine inches and a half. The bill is brownish red; irides red. General colour of the plumage fine golden yellow; between the bill and eye a streak of black; the wings black, marked here and there with yellow, and a patch of the same in the middle of the wing; the two middle feathers of the tail are black, inclining to olive at the base, the very tips yellow; the base half of the others black, the rest yellow; legs lead-colour; claws black.
The female is of a dull greenish brown in those parts where the male is black. Wings dusky; tail dirty green; all but the two middle feathers yellowish white at the ends.