Barrow's Golden-eye 57 



to the tree limit. In winter hardly south of the United States and 

 rare to the south. In Colorado the Golden-eye must be considered 

 a migrant, sometimes spending the winter ; but few observations 

 are recorded. Henshaw reports a young female from Conejos canon 

 at about 9,000 feet, taken by Aiken on August 30th, 1874, and Scott 

 obtained a male in worn summer plumage on June 21st, 1878, at Twin 

 Lakes. It does not seem unhkely, however, that these two birds were 

 Barrow's Golden-eye, which is known to breed in the mountains. 



Henderson states that there in an example from Boulder co. taken 

 on Bearley Lake, February 17th, 1908, in the Museimi of the University, 

 and that a few examples are killed every year in that neighbourhood. 

 Hersey and Rockwell find it common on migration, and not rare in 

 winter at Barr Lake. 



Barrow's Golden-eye. Clangula islandica. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 152 — Colorado Records — Brewer 79 p. 148 ; 

 Drew 85, p. 18 ; Morrison 89, p. 165 ; Cooke 97, pp. 56, 195 ; 06 p. 51 ; 

 Henderson 09, p. 226. 



Description. — Closely resembling C. c. americana, but the head 

 glossed with purpUsh instead of greenish, and the white patch on the 

 crescentic or triangular, not round, and applied to the whole base of 

 the upper mandible ; the white patch of the wing more or less divided 

 by a dark bar. Length about 22 ; wing 9-20 ; culmen 1 -75 ; tarsus 1 -60. 



The female cannot always be distinguished with certainty from that 

 of C. c. americana ; but the head is darker brown, the collar is narrower, 

 and the white area on the wing is more or less completely divided. 

 Mrs. Bailey states that the nail of the bill is always wider — over -23, 

 against -20 or under in the other species ; bill generally yellow. 



Distribution. — Breeding from eastern Canada north to Labrador, 

 and Iceland, and from the mountains of Colorado and Oregon north 

 to Alaska ; in summer only a httle south of the breeding range to 

 Virginia, the Great Lakes, Utah and San Francisco. 



In Colorado Barrow's Golden-ej'e is a svunmer resident, breeding 

 in the mountains up to 10,000 feet, while it appears probable that 

 some birds winter in the State, and others, especially on the north- 

 eastern plains, pass to and fro only on migration. 



Edwin Carter was the first to find the nest and eggs of this Duck in 

 the Rocky Mountains, or even in the United States, in 1876, as reported 

 by Brewer. He took several nests in Middle Park and even as high 

 as 10,000 feet on Georgia Pass. Morrison reports it as nesting freely 

 in Dolores co. and wintering on the La Plata River, between Fort Lewis 

 and Farmington. Gale observed a female with three young on Julj' 

 19th, on the north St. Vrain Creek in Boulder co. 



