10 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and dived again. All food was swallowed where it was found, and small 

 pebbles and fairly large stones were pushed over in the search. Several times 

 I saw the bird just move a flat stone. It would go all around it and try it from 

 every point. If unsuccessful it would come to the surface and rest awhile, 

 and then go down again for another effort. In a lake the goldeneye will dive 

 in perpendicular position, but in flowing water it dives in a slant against the 

 stream or tideway. Their bodies are very light, and bounce up to the surface 

 like a cork immediately they cease to push downward with the feet. In still 

 water the goldeneye often dives in circles to get to the bottom. 



The goldeneye is not much given to vocal performances. The court- 

 ship note of the male has been described by Doctor Townsend (1910) 

 as " a harsh, rasping, double note, zzee-at^ vibratory and searching in 

 character." Elon H. Eaton (1910) says that the male when startled 

 or lost has a sharp cur-r-reio. Edward H. Forbush (1912) credits 

 the female with "a single whistling peep." And Ora W. Knight 

 (1908) has " heard the parents utter a low-pitched quack to call their 

 young." M. P. Skinner says that "the quack of this duck seems 

 harsher than the mallard's." 



Game. — During the four j^ears that I lived on the coast our most 

 interesting winter sport was whistler shooting. Long before day- 

 light we braved the winter's cold and pushed out our skiff to our 

 blind among the ice cakes. We wore white nightgowns over our 

 clothes, white caps and gloves, and sometimes had our gun barrels 

 whitewashed, for the goldeneyes are very wary birds and it is neces- 

 sary to remain motionless and invisible to be successful. The wooden 

 decoys are placed, as soon as it is light enough to see, in some con- 

 venient open space, preferably off the mouth of some fresh-water 

 creek. The blind is made of ice cakes or snow, high enough to con- 

 ceal the gunners. With the coming of the daylight birds begin to 

 move; large gray gulls are seen flapping slowly up the bay to feed 

 on the mud flats ; a flock of black ducks flies out from an open spring 

 hole where it has been feeding all night. The winter sunrise is beau- 

 tiful, as the rosy dawn creeps up from the cold, gray sea and sends 

 a warm glow of color over floating ice and banks of snow. Our eyes 

 are trained seaward to catch the first glimpses of incoming whistlers. 

 At last a black speck is dimly discerned in the distance against a 

 pink cloud ; on it comes straight toward the blind, and we recognize 

 it as an old cock whistler, the advance guard of the morning flight ; 

 he circles, sets his wings and scales down over the decoys; in our 

 eagerness we betray ourselves by a sudden movement ; he sees us and 

 scrambles upward into the air to escape, but it is too late, the guns 

 speak and the first kill is scored. Soon a small flock of five birds 

 comes in, the shrill whistling of their wings sending a thrill of pleas- 

 ure through our chilled veins; they scale down toward the decoys, 

 but see the blind, wheel, and fly off without offering us a shot ; they 

 settle in the water away off among the floating ice and it is useless 



