14 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Early dates of arrival : Massachusetts, October 8 ; Virginia, Alex- 

 andria, October 8. Average dates of arrival : Massachusetts, Woods 

 Hole, November 15; Virginia, Alexandria, October 26; Iowa, Keo- 

 kuk, November 24, Late dates of departure: Quebec, Montreal, 

 November 7; Manitoba, Aweme, November 10. 



Casual records. — Four records for Bermuda (April 10, 1854; 

 December 29, 1874; February 5, 1875; and January 22, 1876). Two 

 records for Pribilof Islands (May 6, 1917, and January 1, 1918). 

 Accidental in Cuba and Barbados. 



Egg dates. — North Dakota : Nineteen records. May 10 to June 11 ; 

 10 records. May 21 to June 1. Manitoba: Five records, June 2 to 

 July 5. Labrador Peninsula : Three records. May 3 to June 30. 



GLAUCIONETTA ISLANDICA (Gmelin) 

 BARROW GOLDENEYE 



HABITS 



Xhis species has been well named, the Roclvy Mountain golden- 

 eye, for outside of the vicinity of the Continental Divide in the 

 northern States and in southern Canada it is nowhere in this 

 country an abundant species at any season. It is so rare throughout 

 most of its American range that few ornithologists have ever seen 

 it in life. 



For this reason it is not strange that it was overlooked by some 

 of the earlier writers and that until recently its distribution was so 

 poorly understood. Wilson makes no mention of the species, and 

 it was entirely overlooked by Audubon, who may have regarded it 

 as a summer plumage of the common species. Even Coues (1874) 

 refers to it as " the most northerly species of the genus, having ap- 

 parently a circumpolar distribution, breeding only (?) in high 

 latitudes, and penetrating but a limited distance south in interior " ; 

 the question mark is his and it is interesting to note that his doubt 

 was removed by finding it breeding in the Roclry^ Mountains of 

 Montana. It is now loiown to breed in these mountains as far 

 south as Colorado, east in Canada to the north shore of the St. 

 Lawrence, in Greenland, and in Iceland; but it is far from being 

 circumpolar, for it occurs on the Old World continent only as a 

 straggler; and it is not known to breed north of the Arctic Circle. 



Courtship. — J. A. Munro (1918) has given us an interesting ac- 

 count of this species, in British Columbia, from which I quote 

 as follows : 



The birds first begin to appear on Okanogan Lake early in March, but are 

 not plentiful until the small mountain lakes are free of ice, early in April. 

 The lakes selected for courtship, and later for the rearing of the young, are 

 usually quite open and free of tules ; hence the goldeneyes are always con- 



