OLD CROW 175 



flocks were also of this species, but examples of Barrow's goldeneye 

 were more nmnerous in hunters' bags and in flocks identified by sight. 



Bucephala islandica (Gmelin) 



1 male June 14 weight 914 g. medium fat 



Philippe Dicquemare kindly provided us with the specimen of Bar- 

 row's goldeneye, listed above. Joe Kay distinguished it from the 

 specimen of American goldeneye, and named it differently, Tesitet hyl. 

 The testes had been destroyed by shot, but it was in breeding plumage. 

 Kay's familiarity with the two species indicates that both are known 

 on the Porcupine. Kand (1946) reported Barrow's goldeneye as a 

 fairly common smnmer resident in southern Yukon. Kessel, Murie, 

 and Schaller, in an unpublished survey of the birds of the Sheenjek 

 River, reported a sighting of Barrow's goldeneye on the Sheenjek 

 River in 1956, probably the northernmost record in western America. 



Clangula hyemalis (Linnaeus) 



Oldsquaws were not seen until just as the ice began to move in the 

 river on May 22. On May 23, Father Mouchet and Philippe Dicque- 

 mare provided us with two males and a female which had been shot 

 while together. During the next week small flocks were frequently 

 seen flying eastward over the river. Usually the flocks of oldsquaws 

 were not high and flew purposively, like the migrating scoters, and 

 unlike the frequently deviating courses of migrating flights of pin- 

 tails, mallards, and widgeons. Individuals and pairs of oldsquaws 

 were often seen during late May on the lakes and river. 



On Jmie 4 there was much crying and maneuvering among several 

 male oldsquaws attending females on a small lake. Males which 

 intruded upon the pairs were vigorously repelled. During their noisy 

 courtship the males lost their caution and allowed close approach by 

 land or canoe. The preoccupation of both sexes with mating made 

 them the least wary of the ducks. Until Jmie 15 oldsquaws on the 

 lakes demonstrated little concern for anything but breeding. During 

 the following week several small flocks of oldsquaws were noticed 

 along the river. 



A comparison of the density of the local summer population of old- 

 squaws near Old Crow with the intensity of eastward migration sug- 

 gests that the migratory flights would not much more than provide the 

 Porcupine and Old Crow Valleys with their summer population. 

 Rand (1946) mentions no observation of oldsquaws in Yukon south 

 of the Arctic coast, so the migration through Old Crow camiot have 

 traversed southern Yukon and probably came from the Alaskan Yukon 

 Valley. Since oldsquaws are said by Dall and Bannister (1869) to be 



