56 Birds of Colorado 



winter south over most of the United States and Mexico to Cuba 

 and Guatemala. 



This is one of the rarer ducks in Colorado and has only been reported 

 a few times. It ia probably only a migrant. There is an example 

 in the Colorado Museum of Natural History at Denver, taken on a 

 lake near Denver, November 10th, 1898, by B. Hayward. 



Genus CLANGULA. 



Bill shorter than the head, about as long as the tarsus, very high 

 at the base, narrowed towards the tip ; nostrils well in front of the 

 middle of the bill ; head pufiy-looking and crested ; tail about half 

 the length of the wing, pointed and 16-feathered ; males with a green 

 head with a white patch ; females plain brown. 



Two species only. 



Key of the Species. 



A. Head glossed with greenish ; cheek spot oval or rounded. 



C. c. americana, <? p. 56. 



B. Head glossed with purpUsh ; cheek-spot triangular. 



C. islandica, (? p. 57. 



C. Head brown. 



a. White wing-patch undivided. C. c. americana, ? p. 56. 



b. White wing-patch divided. C, islandica, ? p. 57. 



American Golden-eye. 

 Clangula clangula americana. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 151 — Colorado Records — Aiken 72, p. 210 ; 

 Henshaw 75, p. 480 ; Scott 79, p. 96 ; Morrison 89, p. 165 ; Cooke 97, 

 p. 56 ; 06, p. 49 ; Henderson 03, p. 107 ; 09, p. 226. 



Description. — Male— Head and crest rich dark green with a round 

 white patch near the base of, but not touching, the bill ; neck all round 

 and under-parts white ; back black, shoulders white, wing with a white 

 central patch and white stripes on the scapulars ; iris golden yellow, 

 bill dusky, feet orange. Length 20 ; wing 9-10 ; tail 4-0 ; culmen 14 ; 

 tarsus 1-6. 



The female has the head and upper-neck light snufTy-brown, a wide 

 white or grey collar round the neck ; chest, sides and shoulders grey ; 

 belly white; wing (8-25) dusky with white on the coverts and 

 secondaries. 



A young male Ls like the female, but generally shows traces of the 

 white face patch ; biU generally dusky brown, not yellow. 



Distribution. — Breeding from northern New England along the 

 northern border of the United States to British Columbia, northwards 



