LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 23 



plunging under luul shaking tliemselves at tlie same time. Tliey usually dress 

 their feathers while on the water, turning far over, first on one side, then 

 on the other, to get at places ordinarily under the surface. Once I found a 

 Barrow preening on a half suhmerged bowlder. 



Winter. — The winter home of the Barrow goldeneye is not far 

 south of its summer range, and its migration is not much more than 

 a movement otf its nesting- grounds to more satisfactory feeding 

 grounds. It seems to be fairly common on the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 in winter, where it frequents about the same resorts as the common 

 goldeneye, but farther south on the Atlantic coast it is rare. It 

 winters on some of the large lakes and rivers of the interior, as well 

 as on the Pacific coast. 



J. A. Munro (1918) says that "throughout the winter months it 

 is found on the seacoast, in the many sheltered estuaries from Puget 

 Sound to Hecate Strait and Dixon Inlet." He also writes to me 

 " that a few birds winter on the Okanogan River below Okanogan 

 Falls in a rapid stretch of water with strong bottom, where craw- 

 fish are very abundant. They are usually in company with the com- 

 mon goldeneye." 



Mr. Skinner writes to me : 



While the majority migrate on the freezing of the waters, a few remain 

 along the Gardiner and Yellowstone Rivers all winter, and become even 

 tamer than usual, entitling tliem to be rated as resident (in Montana) at all 

 seasons. Barrows that liad wintered along the Gardiner in 1920-21 began 

 leaving about February 25, or about the time that waters elsewhere were be- 

 ginning to open. First to go were the males, then the females and imma- 

 tures : until only one was left on March 1, and that one went next day. But 

 cold, freezing temperature brought them back, a female on the 7th and six 

 drakes and five females on the 12th ; then they decreased again. By the 24th 

 they were abundant at th.e outlet of Yellowstone Lake at 1,000 feet higher 

 altitude or just over 7,700 feet above sea level. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — In North America, a few breed on the Labrador 

 Peninsula from the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Point des Monts) to 

 northern Labrador (Davis Inlet). But the main breeding range is 

 in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains. East to western Alberta 

 (Banff), northwestern Montana (Glacier National Park) and cen- 

 tral northern Colorado (Boulder County). South to southwestern 

 Colorado (Dolores County). West to southwestern Oregon (Crook 

 County and Douglas County), central British Columbia (Okanogan 

 and La Hache Valleys), to the coast of southern Alaska (Chilkat 

 and Sitka), and south central Alaska (Lake Clark). North to 

 northern Mackenzie (Fort Anderson rarely) and Great Slave Lake 



10044^—2.5 3 



