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CLANGULA GLAUCION AMERICANA. 



THE AMERICAN GOLDEN-EYE. 



Specific Character. -Male — Head and upper half of neck black glossed with 

 green, varying to violet, a roundish white spot between the rictus and the eye, 

 but not reaching to the latter ; back, inner scapulars, tertials, rump, and upper 

 tail coverts, deep black ; lower half of the neck (all round), lower parts, outer 

 scapulars, posterior, lesser, middle, and greater wing coverts and secondaries, 

 pure white ; anterior lesser wing coverts and outer edges of scapulars and flank 

 feathers and concealed portions of greater coverts deep black ; primaries blackish 

 dusky ; tail dull slate ; sides of the anal region behind the flanks clouded with 

 grayish. Bill deep black ; iris bright yellow ; feet orange yellow with dusky 

 webs. 



Adult Female. — Head and neck hair brown of greyish brown, rather than 

 purplish sepia or snuff brown, and white on the wing usually not interrupted by 

 a distinct bar. 



Total length about 18.50-20.00 inches ; extent 31.00 ; wing about 9.25 ; 

 length of bill from tip to basal angle 1.85 ; tarsus 1.60 ; middle toe 2.50. Female 

 is less in size. 



Habitat. — The whole of North America breeding from Maine and British 

 provinces northward, south to Cuba in the winter. The Golden-eye, or Whistler, 

 as it is commonly called from the noise it makes with its wings when flying, is 

 distributed pretty generally over North America. It is quite common in Ontario 

 especially in the late autumn, and it probably remains on open waters all winter 

 in Southern Ontario. It feeds on fish, shellfish, molluscs, marine vegetables, and 

 seeds. Its flesh is consequently fishy and almost unfit for food. It breeds prin- 

 cipally to the north and the nest is, generally like the Woodduck's. in a hole in 

 a tree where the female lays 6 or 8 eggs. It is a strong flyer ancTan expert diver 

 and not easily shot. 



