Barrow’s Golden-eye 57 
to the tree limit. In winter hardly south of the United States and 
rare to the south. In Colorado the Golden-eye must be considered 
@ migrant, sometimes spending the winter; but few observations 
are recorded. Henshaw reports a young female from Conejos cafion 
at about 9,000 feet, taken by Aiken on August 30th, 1874, and Scott 
obtained a male in worn summer plumage on June 21st, 1878, at Twin 
Lakes. It does not seem unlikely, however, that these two birds were 
Barrow’s Golden-eye, which is known to breed in the mountains. 
Henderson states that there in an example from Boulder co. taken 
on Bearley Lake, February 17th, 1908, in the Museum of the University, 
and that a few examples are killed every year in that neighbourhood. 
Hersey and Rockwell find it common on migration, and not rare in 
winter at Barr Lake. 
Barrow’s Golden-eye. Clangula islandica. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 152—Colorado Records—Brewer 79 p. 148; 
Drew 85, p. 18; Morrison 89, p. 165; Cooke 97, pp. 56, 195; 06 p. 51; 
Henderson 09, p. 226. 
Description.—Closely resembling C. c. americana, but the head 
glossed with purplish instead of greenish, and the white patch on the 
crescentic or triangular, not round, and applied to the whole base of 
the upper mandible ; the white patch of the wing more or less divided 
by adark bar. Length about 22 ; wing 9-20; culmen 1-75 ; tarsus 1-60. 
The female cannot always be distinguished with certainty from that 
of C. v. americana ; but the head is darker brown, the collar is narrower, 
and the white area on the wing is more or less completely divided. 
Mrs. Bailey states that the nail of the billis always wider—over -23, 
against -20 or under in the other species ; bill generally yellow. 
Distribution.—Breeding from eastern Canada north to Labrador, 
and Iceland, and from the mountains of Colorado and Oregon north 
to Alaska; in summer only a little south of the breeding range to 
Virginia, the Great Lakes, Utah and San Francisco. 
In Colorado Barrow’s Golden-éye is a summer resident, breeding 
in the mountains up to 10,000 feet, while it appears probable that 
some birds winter in the State, and others, especially on the north- 
eastern plains, pass to and fro only on migration. 
Edwin, Carter was the first to find the nest and eggs of this Duck in 
the Rocky Mountains, or even in the United States, in 1876, as reported 
by Brewer. He took several nests in Middle Park and even as high 
as 10,000 feet on Georgia Pass. Morrison reports it as nesting freely 
in Dolores co. and wintering on the La Plata River, between Fort Lewis 
and Farmington. Gale observed a female with three young on July 
19th, on the north St. Vrain Creek in Boulder co. 
