WATER BIRDS. 99 



staying all winter (Birds of Indiana, 1897, p. 621). Swales (Birds of 

 S. E. Michigan, 1904), says "A common migrant and winter resident, late 

 October and late April. It is the common winter duck in Detroit waters, 

 frequenting the open channels cut by the ferry and car boats. Becomes 

 more abundant in spring." 



It seldom occurs in large flocks, the maximum being a dozen or fifteen 

 individuals. Oftener it is seen singly or in little squads of two to five. 

 It is a shy bird, usually being the first species to take alarm in a mixed 

 flock. The whistling noise made by the wings is characteristic, and of 

 course has given it its name. It dives most expertly and often avoids 

 the shot by diving at the flash of the gun, whence the name Spirit Duck. 



Our only nesting record for the state appears to be Major Boies' state- 

 ment that it breeds about Neebish Island in the St. Mary's River (Bull. 

 Mich. Orn. Club I, 1897, 18). At Umbagog, Me., Mr. WilHam Brewster 

 found it breeding, and gives a full account in the Auk, Vol. XVII, 1900, 

 207. The bird nests always in a hollow tree, often entering through a hole 

 from 10 to 30 or 40 feet above the nest. "This is lined with down and the 

 eggs vary from 5 to 15, oftenest 8 or 10. Two females often lay in the 

 same nest, and often several eggs of the Hooded Merganser are laid with 

 them." The eggs average 2.38 by 1.71 inches. 



It feeds freely on shell-fish, and along the sea coast is considered hardly 

 fit for food, but in the Great Lake region its flesh is commonly well flavored 

 and it doubtless feeds much on vegetable matter. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male:_ Bill black, iris golden yellow; head and upper neck glossy black with 

 greenish reflections and a large, rounded, snow-white spot between the base of bill and eye 

 (Fig. 23); lower neck, breast, belly and sides pure white; hinder part of flanks and sides 

 of tail brownish-black; back, rump and upper tail-coverts black; scapulars black with 

 broad white stripes; wing mainly black with a large white patch on secondaries and coverts. 

 Adult female without any trace of the white cheek spot, the head and neck brown 

 instead of black; the chest gray, separated from the brown neck by a whitish ring; the 

 rest of the bird much Hke male, but with less white on wings and none at all on scapulars, 

 and the back slaty instead of clear black. 



Length of male 18.50 to 23 inches; wing 9 to 9.30; culmen about 1.65. Female about 

 16.50; wing 7.90 to 8.30; culmen about 1.30. 



49. Barrow's Golden-eye. Clangula islandica (Gmelin). (152) 



Synonyms: Rocky Mountain Golden-eye. — Anas islandica, Gmelin, 1789. — Clangula 

 Barrovii, Sw. & Rich., 1831. — Fuligula Barrovii, Nutt., 1834. — Bucephala islandica, 

 Baird, 1858. — Clangula islandica, Bonap., 1842. 



Figure 2^. 



Extremely like the common Golden-eye, the males practically alike ex- 

 cept in the shape of the white cheek spot; the females almost identical. 



Distribution. — Northern North America, south in winter to New York, 

 Illinois and Utah; breeding from the Gulf of St. Lawrence northward, 

 and south in the Rocky Mountains to Colorado; Greenland and Iceland. 

 Accidental in Europe. 



The evidence for this species as a Michigan bird is not voluminous. 

 A careful search of the museums and private collections of the state failed 

 for a long time to reveal a single specimen of undoubted i\Iichigan 

 origin. Finally Mr. E. R. Kalmbach, of Grand Rapids, sent us the 



