98 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



member of the genus. Mr. Swales states (Birds of S. E. ]\lich., 1904) 

 "I know little of this bird and have not met with it personally at the 

 Flats or on Detroit River, or seen it in any of the ducker's cabins. Purdy 

 says 'taken at Plymouth as a migrant.' " According to Chas. L. Cass 

 this species remained at Hillsdale, Michigan, until November 26, 1894. 

 Mr. L. Whitney Watkins has a specimen taken in Jackson county, April 

 18, 1894, and there are two specimens, male and female, in the Agricultural 

 College collection taken at Greenville, Montcalm county. 



According to the late Percy Selous "in June, 1896, a pair of Ring-necked 

 Ducks spent weeks on Baldwin Lake (near Greenville), and probably 

 were nesting." Most of the public and private collections in the state 

 have specimens of this duck, lout it is certainly never common. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Head, neck, chest and back black, the chin with a snow-white triangular 

 patch, and the lower neck encircled by a chestnut ring; the head and neck glossed with 

 purplish, and the feathers of the occiput usually elongated, forming a dense, bushy, more 

 or less erect crest. Lower breast and belly white; flanks finely cross-lined with white 

 and dusky; rump and upper and under tail-coverts black. Speculum blue-gray, some- 

 times very narrowly white-tipped. The black scapulars are sometimes minutely sprinkled 

 with white. Bill black, bordered by white at the base, and crossed near the tip by a 

 bluish-white band. Adult female: Similar only as to the speculum and wings. Head, 

 neck, breast and back grajdsh-brown, deepest on the crown and neck, whitening to gray 

 or soiled white about the base of the bill and on chin and throat; rump brownish-black; 

 lower breast and belly soiled whitish; hinder part of belly grayish-brown like breast; 

 under tail-coverts gray. 



Length 15.50 to 18 incnes; wing 7 to 8 culmen 1.75 to 2. 



48. Whistler. Clangula clangula americana Bonap. (151) 



Synonyms: Golden-eye, American Golden-eye, Whistle-wing, Spirit Duck, Garrot. 

 — Clangula americana, Bonap., 1838. — ^Anas clangula, Linn., 1766, part. — Glaucion 

 clangula, Kaup. — Clangula glaucion.'Bonap. — Bucephala clangula, Coues, 1872. 



Figure 23. 



A large, handsome, black and white duck with a green-black head and a 

 rounded spot of pure white on each side betw^een eye and bill. The female 

 has brown instead of black head, and other dark parts slaty gray instead 

 of black; no white cheek spot. 



Distribution. — North America, breeding 

 from Maine and the British Provinces north- 

 ward; in winter south to Cuba and Mexico. 



The Whistler or Golden-eye is one of the 

 best known ducks in the state, yet appar- 

 ently is nowhere very abundant. It does 

 not spend the summer within our limits, 

 and is late in arriving from the north, 

 few coming before the first of November. 

 Unless driven south by heavy ice some 

 3f them stay all winter. Even at Sault 

 Ste. Marie, where the river remains open 



on account of the swift current, Mr. W. Fip. 23. Whistler. From BaUey's 



P. Melville says that they are found all x^nTted^sutL'^'cHVuUton^MiffliS 

 winter. Butler states that on southern Lake & Co.) 

 Michigan this is the common winter duck, 



