2 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



character. Tlie head is then quickly snapped back until the occiput touches 

 the rump, whence it is brought forward again with a jerk to the normal 

 position. As the head is returned to its place the bird often springs forward 

 kicking the water in a spurt out behind, and displaying like a flash of flame 

 the orange-colored legs. 



As these courtships begin on warm days in February and last 

 through March, probably many pairs are mated before they migrate 

 to their breeding grounds in April. Doctor Townsend writes me 

 that he saw a pair copulating at Barnstable, Massachusetts, on March 

 28. Mr. Charles E. Alford (1921) writes: 



Though the habit of lying more or less prone upon the water is common 

 to most females of the Anatidae when they desire to pair, the duck goldeneye 

 carries this performance beyond all normal bounds; her behavior on such oc- 

 casions being, indeed, scarcely less amazing than that of the drake. With 

 neck outstretched and her body quite limp and apparently lifeless, she allows 

 herself to drift upon the surface exactly after the manner of a dead bird. 

 When first I witnessed this maneuver I was completely deceived, for she re- 

 mained thus drifting toward the shore, and with the male swimming round 

 her for fully 1.5 minutes before actual pairing took place. This occurred 

 on February 2, 1920, a beautiful springlike day, the whole of that month 

 being unusually mild and sunny. 



Nesting. — The American goldeneye, so far as I know, invariably 

 places its nest in a cavity in a tree, preferably in a large natural 

 cavity and often entirely open at the top. Considerable variation is 

 shown in the selection of a suitable nesting site, which depends on 

 the presence of hollow trees. Near Eskimo Point, on the south 

 coast of the Labrador Peninsula, I found a nest on June 10, 1909, 

 in a white birch stub on the bare crest of a gravel cliff over 100 feet 

 above the beach. The stub, which stood in an entirely open place, 

 was 6 feet in circumference and about 18 feet high, broken and open 

 at the top down to about 12 feet from the ground. A female golden- 

 eye flew out of the large cavity, in Avhich were 15 handsome, green 

 eggs on a soft bed of rotten chips and white down. The nest was 

 about a foot below the front edge of the cavity. I have never seen 

 another nest in such an open and exposed situation. 



Mr. Brewster (1900) found this species breeding abundantly at 

 Lake Umbagog, in Maine, in 1907, and made some valuable and 

 interesting observations on its breeding habits. About the location 

 of its nest, he says : 



All the whistlers' nests which I have examined have been placed over 

 water at heights varying from 6 or 8 to 50 or 60 feet and in cavities in 

 the trunks of large hardwood trees such as elms, maples, and yellow or canoe 

 birches. As the supply of such cavities is limited, even where dead or decay- 

 ing trees abound, and as the birds have no means of enlarging or otherwise 

 improving them ; they are not fastidious in their choice, but readily make use 

 of any opening which can be made to serve their purpose. Thus it happens 

 that the nest is sometimes placed at the bottom of a hollow trunk, 6, 10, or 

 even 15 feet below the hole at which the bird enters, at others on a level 



