BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 131 



that this species, formerly not very common near Cape 

 Charles, Va., is now abundant there. I hear of no increase 

 elsewhere along the Atlantic coast except at Prince Edward 

 Island (where Mr. E. T. Carbonnel says that nearly all wild- 

 fowl have increased under recent protection) and locally in 

 Massachusetts, where Whistlers have increased since spring 

 shooting was abolished. 



The Golden-eye is commonly known as the Whistler be- 

 cause of the peculiar penetrating whistle made by its wings 

 in flight. There are times when these cutting strokes can be 

 heard even before the bird itself can be clearly made out. 

 The Whistler breeds from just above the latitude of Massa- 

 chusetts northward to the limit of trees, making its nest in 

 a hollow tree near some fresh-water pond or river. It breeds 

 in the interior of Alaska, but is very rarely seen on the coast. 

 Barnum mentioned a case of its breeding in Onondaga County, 

 N. Y., and Merriam, Ralph and Bagg record it as breeding in 

 the Adirondack region.^ It formerly bred abundantly in the 

 Maine woods, and still breeds there and probably in northern 

 Vermont and New Hampshire to some extent. Boardman 

 states that in Maine he has seen the female Whistler pick up 

 two of her ducklings, one at a time, and carry them across a 

 lake, making a trip for each young one, and he was told by his 

 companion that the mother birds often took their young from 

 one lake to another when they thought the little ones were 

 in danger. The bird appeared to carry the young by her 

 feet pressed close to the body. When his companion shouted 

 and threw up his hat the bird dropped the young one, but 

 came back for it at once. Boardman's companion told him 

 that the young were usually carried from the nest to the 

 water in the bill of the parent, but to go any distance the 

 feet were used in carrying them. The Golden-eye is found 

 almost throughout the interior of North America, and is dis- 

 tinctly a fresh-water bird until the frosts of winter begin to 

 close the ponds and rivers, when most of the Whistlers in 

 New England go to the salt water. Some, however, still 

 remain in the unfrozen fresh waters of the north, south and 



1 Eaton, E. H.: Birds of New York, 1910, p. 209. 



