78 BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



The Golden-eye or Whistler is of wide distribution, being found at some time 

 of the year throughout the greater part of North America. Difficult at all times 

 to kill, it knows well the hunting methods of the Eskimo of the North and the peon 

 of the South. As a diver it is an expert, and often disappears at the flash of the 

 gun. Writing of the nesting habits of the Golden-eye, Mr. William Brewster in 

 The Auk for July, 1900, says: "All the Whistlers' nests which I have examined 

 have been placed over water at heights varying from six or eight to fifty or sixty 

 feet, and in cavities in the trunks of large hardwood trees such as elms, maples, and 

 yellow or canoe birches. As the supply of such cavities is limited even where dead 

 or decaying trees abound, and as the birds have no means of enlarging or otherwise 

 improving them, they are not fastidious in their choice, but readily make use of 

 any opening which can be made to serve their purpose. Thus it happens that the 

 nest is sometimes placed at the bottom of a hollow trunk, six, ten, or even fifteen 

 feet below the hole at which the bird enters, and at others on a level with and 

 scarce a foot back from the entrance." The introduction of pickerel in many 

 northern streams and lakes is responsible for the destruction of numerous young, 

 a plump, juicy young duck affording an appetizing mouthful for this ever-hungry 

 fish. 



The Golden-eyes frequent our sounds and estuaries apparently in limited num- 

 bers, feeding upon shellfish, Crustacea, and various water plants. They keep well 

 to themselves as a rule, and never "raft" in large numbers. 



FIG. 48. BARROW'S GOLDEN-EYE (adult male). 



Coues found them not uncommon near Fort Macon in 1869 and 1870. Cairns 

 records them as rare in Buncombe County. Several skins from the coast region are 

 in the State Museum. Pearson discovered a dead specimen on Pea Island, Decem- 

 ber 30, 1902. H. H. Brimley collected an immature male, and saw another on 

 White Lake in Bladen County, January 3, 1912. 



