64 



NOTES ON THE 



habits. When there shall have been a more extended explora- 

 tion -of the northern portions of the State, during the mid- 

 summer, I feel confident that it will be found that the Ring 

 necks breed there as commonly as in any other locality or 

 district of its entire range. 



GLAUCIONETTA CLANGULA AMERICANA 



(BONAP.). (151.) 



AMERICAN GOLDEN- EYE. 



This Duck returns with rather more than ordinary regularity 

 as a migrant but is rarely observed here in the season of 

 breeding. Small flocks may be seen occasionally in winter, 

 especially at times of exceptionally severe weather. They are 

 almost uniformly amongst the earliest to reach us in the 

 spring, while the lakes and streams are yet sealed with ice, 

 except spots along the shores and where the currents are 

 more rapid in the streams. 



The whistling of their wings in flight is a generic character- 

 istic, and is often heard before the duck is visible. They 

 remain but a short time, but in autumn they sometimes 

 reappear as early as the second week in October, when they 

 remain in flocks of a dozen to twenty, about as late as any of 

 the other species, after which they principally disappear. In 

 early times small flocks remained in the spring-holes along the 

 Minnesota river bottoms and below the Falls of St. Anthony 

 all winter, which they may still do in wild, and unfrequented 

 sections. On the 3d of February, 1886, one of the coldest 

 days experienced during that winter, they were seen on the 

 river at Lanesboro in Fillmore county, by Dr. Hvoslef, and by 

 others who reported them from several widely different sec- 

 tions. Neither of my earlier lieutenants ever met the Golden- 

 eye except rarely in the colder winters, and Mr. Washburn 

 found them there in the sections he visited even in the spring 

 migrations. He saw a few individuals at Dead lake, bu t they 

 were universally in immature plumage. 



I have been assured by local sportsmen at Herman in Grant 

 county, that "a few Whistlers" have been seen near there late 

 in the breeding season, and from similar assertions by those 

 who seemed to know the species under its common name of 

 Whistler, I am compelled to believe that laggards may occa- 

 sionally be overtaken by the impulse and urgency of ovular ex- 

 pulsion, and rear a brood within our borders. I find this im- 



