The American Golden-eye 



The American Golden-eye is of fairly regular but not frequent occur- 

 rence in the coastal waters of California as far south as Monterey. From 

 that point southward its appearance is noteworthy, but we have seen it at 

 Santa Barbara, and there are several Los Angeles County records. These 

 birds are lovers of clear water and dashing spray, hence the marshes and 

 "evaporating pans" of our great central valleys have small attraction for 

 them. Our mountain lakes doubtless would claim their attention in win- 

 ter, if they did not persist in freezing over. And we cannot but speculate 

 upon the reason for their total absence from these lakes in summer, since 

 the birds are very tolerant of cold, and nest under quite similar circum- 

 stances in British Columbia or northern Washington. 



Golden-eyes associate in small flocks, usually of not more than eight 

 or ten individuals; and because of the prominence of their snowy plumage 

 they find themselves obliged to maintain a wary lookout wherever found. 

 The birds, the males at least, ride high upon the water, yet they dive with 

 extraordinary ease and wrest most of their living from the depths. On 

 salt water the birds venture up on shore as often as they dare, and it is to be 

 feared that they are not fastidious in the matter of their food. Mussels, 

 crabs, and marine worms are commonly eaten, and that bugaboo of north- 

 ern beaches, the decayed salmon, is also greedily devoured, so that the 

 birds are usually unfit for culinary consideration. 



Though not a breeding bird of California, our interest in the Golden- 

 eye's family life will have been aroused by the extraordinary antics of 

 courtship which are incidental to late winter. After the male has bobbed 

 and wheezed and thrown his head backward in violent protestations, a re- 

 ciprocal passion is confessed, and the pair sets off for some sheltered lakelet 

 of the North where timber abounds. A cavity in a decaying stump or an 

 old woodpecker's hole, necessarily that of the Pileated Woodpecker for so 

 large a tenant, is chosen, and the bottom of the hole, whether near or 

 remote, is filled with eggs. According to Brewster, these are often piled 

 in two layers or set on end, "packed in so closely that it is as difficult to 

 remove the first as to take a book from a tightly filled shelf." But these 

 are cushioned as well as buried in an abundance of light gray down. The 

 down coverlet is drawn closely over as often as the female is obliged to 

 absent herself for food, and no harm comes to the eggs even in the sharp 

 air of northern Alberta. 



When the youngsters are hatched they are either allowed to spill 

 out upon the ground, or into the water, if the nest is so fortunately placed; 

 or else they are transported upon the back of the mother bird, clutch- 

 ing tightly at the ruffled feathers of the neck with their tiny bills. Or 

 else — testimony is explicit upon this point — the chicks are picked up 

 and carried by the maternal beak. Or else — this sounds fishy, and I 



1816 



