^'''ioiO^^^J TowNSEND, Courtship of Golden-eye and Eider Ducks. 179 



The display of the briUiant orange-red tarsi and feet by the 

 males is particularly interesting. These members in the females 

 are pale yellow in color, and it may be supposed that the males 

 have attained the more attractive orange-red as a result of sexual 

 selection. They certainly make good use of this brilliant color in 

 the courtship display, for the flash of the orange feet contrasting 

 with the snowy flanks of the bird and the dark water is extremely 

 effective and noticeable even at a considerable distance. In this 

 connection it is interesting to note that the legs and feet of both 

 male and female Barrow's Golden-eye {Clangula islaiidica) are 

 alike pale yellow. I am not familiar with the courtship of this bird, 

 and as far as I know it has never been described but I think it is 

 reasonable to infer that the display of the legs as in the American 

 Golden-eye is not a part of the performance. As the Barrow's 

 Golden-eye lacks the peculiar localized swelling of the lower wind- 

 pipe found in the American species, one might suppose that the 

 peculiar musical part of the performance was also lacking in this 

 western species. A study of the courtship of this very similar yet 

 very different bird is much to be desired. 



There is no more unusual and bizarre sight in the bird world 

 than a dozen or more beautiful Golden-eye drakes crowding 

 restlessly around a few demure little females and displaying these 

 antics of head, neck and foot, while ever and anon their curious 

 love-song pierces the air. 



In his Labrador Journal of July 11, 1775, Cartwright says: 

 "The water too, instead of pans of ice, was mottled over with 

 ducks and drakes, cooing amorously; which brought to my re- 

 membrance, the pleasing melody of the stockdove," and he adds 

 in a foot-note : " Eider-ducks make a cooing at this time of the year, 

 not unlike the first note of the stockdove." During a recent trip 

 to Labrador with Mr. Bent in May and June,^ 1909, the study of 

 the courtship of the Eider {Somateria dresseri) was one of mygreatest 

 interests. Everywhere we went among the rocky islands that 

 line the coast, pairs and little bands of Eiders abounded. We 

 found twenty nests on an island of a few acres, and, on a walk 

 around Esquimaux Island, we must have seen at least 500 of these 



' Auk, Vol. XXVII, 1910, pp. 1-18. 



