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 38d 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, but 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- 
