14:8 Brewer on the Rocky Mountain Golden-rye. 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOLDEN-EYE (BUCEPIIALA 

 ISLANDICA.) 



BY T. M. BREWER. 



It appears to be a somewhat remarkable fact that this form of 

 Golden-eye, now ascertained to be a species so almost exclusively 

 North American, should have been so little known to our earlier 

 ornithological writers ; and it is hardly less surprising, — when we 

 call to mind that nearly half a century ago Dr. Richardson, in 

 " Fauna Boreali- Americana/' and only three years afterwards Mr. 

 Nut tall (Water Birds, p. 444), assigned our Rocky Mountain region 

 as the habitat of this species during its season of reproduction, — that 

 its true character and history and geographical abode should have 

 been so imperfectly understood up to the present time. In the 

 ninth volume of the " Pacific Railroad Reports" its habitat is given 

 ,-is, — " Iceland and northern parts of America. In winter not rare 

 on the St. Lawrence." In the " Key to North American Birds," we 

 read: "Arctic America to the N. States in winter, not common. 

 Also N. Europe." In the "Birds of the Northwest," while it is 

 said to " probably breed in the Rocky Mountains of the United 

 States," we also find it stated to be "the most northerly species of 

 the genus, having apparently a circumpolar distribution, breeding 

 only] in high latitudes, and penetrating but a limited distance south 

 in winter." The same writer, in "Field-Notes on the Birds of 

 Montana," etc., was "greatly interested "to find this species " breed- 

 ing in the Rocky Mountains," and mentions it as " the first recorded 

 instance of the occurrence of the species, during the breeding 

 season, in the United States." 



Tins species entirely escaped the notice of Wilson. It is only 

 mentioned, or referred to, by Bonaparte as a European species, and 

 although given by Richardson and Nuttall, was overlooked by 

 Audubon, or only regarded as a curious variety of the common 

 Golden eye. Nuttall refers to it as the " Rocky Mountain Golden- 

 eye," a very appropriate name, mentions its breeding in these 

 mountains, and as having the same habits as the common species. 

 As be makes no reference to Richardson, it is probable that what 

 In- Btatea is based on his own observations. 



