DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS: Family Anatidae [ l6l ] 



American Golden-eye: 



Glaucionetta dangula americana (Bonaparte) 



DESCRIPTION. "Adult male: Head and crest rich dark green, a round white patch at 

 base of bill; neck and under parts white; back black, shoulders white; wing with 

 white central patch and white stripes on scapulars. Adult female: head and upper 

 neck light snuff brown, neck with wide white or gray collar; belly white; chest, 

 sides, and shoulders gray; wing dusky, with white on coverts and secondaries, the 

 white greater coverts not tipped with dusky. Nail of bill not over .10 wide. Young 

 male: like female, but sometimes with a suggestion of the white patch at base of bill, 

 and less gray on chest." (Bailey) Downy young: "The upper part of the head, down 

 to a line running straight back from the commissure to the nape, is deep, rich, 

 glossy 'bone brown'; the throat and cheeks are pure white, the white spaces nearly 

 meeting on the hind neck; the upper parts vary from pale 'clove brown' on the upper 

 back to deep 'bone brown' on the rump; these colors shade off to 'hair brown' on the 

 sides and form a ring of the same around the neck; the posterior edges of the wings 

 are white, and there is a white spot on each scapular region and one on each side of 

 the rump; the belly is white." (Bent) Si%e: "Male, length 18.50-13.00, wing 9.18, 

 bill 1.95. Female, 16.50, wing 8.14, bill 1.64." (Bailey) Nest: A cavity in a tree, 

 usually over the water, the nest itself hollowed out in a mass of rotten wood and 

 lined with down. Eggs: 8 to iz, although occasionally up to 19, clear pale green 

 in color. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from central Maine, northern New Hampshire, and 

 Vermont, northern Michigan, northern Minnesota, northern North Dakota, north- 

 western Montana, and central interior British Columbia north to the limit of large 

 trees. Winters on coasts from Maine and the Aleutian Islands southward and in 

 interior wherever there is open water on larger lakes and streams from Canada to 

 Gulf coast. In Oregon: Common winter resident on all coastal bays and lakes, and 

 also on Snake, Columbia, Deschutes, Klamath, Umatilla, Wallowa, and other 

 similar streams that remain unfrozen through the winter. 



FOR SOME REASON, the American Golden-eye appears neither in Lewis and 

 Clark's nor in Douglas' records for this district. Townsend (1839) re- 

 ported it for Oregon, however, and nearly every ornithologist who has 

 visited the State since has had some comment to make about it. The 

 beautiful black and white males and the demure brownish and gray 

 females are now equally familiar winter residents of the open waters of 

 the State. The name "American Golden-eye" is given to distinguish the 

 species from similar Old World forms, but because of the peculiar whist- 

 ling noise produced by the rapid beat of its powerful wings it is known 

 to most Oregonians as "Whistler," which is the name used widely by 

 gunners in distinguishing it. Its squarely built, heavy body and striking 

 black and white coloration combine to make it an easily recognized 

 species either in flight or on the water. Its flight is strong and direct, 

 the weighty body hurtling through the air at a surprisingly fast rate. 



This showy whistler is a hardy species and frequents the swift waters 

 of the mountain streams which, with their tumbling rapids, churned into 

 white foam, remain unfrozen through the coldest weather. It is very 

 common on the Snake River and furnishes one of the attractions of a 



