GOLDEN-EYE 319 



Its abundance as a nester in northern Finland is evident from the accounts of the 

 early bird-collectors in that country who found places where a dozen or more nest- 

 ing-boxes were hung up within sight of each other. Northeast of Berlin near Ebers- 

 wald, Jager (1910) tells of a regular breeding colony of fifty or sixty that occupied 

 breeding hollows in old oak trees at Wolletz Lake. I do not doubt that colonies 

 could be started almost anywhere within the regular breeding range, and probably 

 even north of it as has been done in places in northern Finland where trees are too 

 small (S. A. Da vies, 1905). 



The Golden-eye still holds out as a breeder in northern New England, apparently 

 in nearly its original numbers, although the Hooded Merganser has vanished within 

 a few years from the same region. Harper found it third in order of abundance among 

 the breeding ducks of the Athabasca delta where it was extremely plentiful and 

 seemingly limited only by the available hollow trees. It is considered seventh in 

 order of abundance on Puget Sound in December (U.S. Biological Survey). 



This duck is so evenly distributed along our Atlantic coast from the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence to Beaufort, North Carolina, that its total population must be enormous. 

 I had always thought of it as fairly scarce south of Chesapeake Bay but it is present 

 in thousands; in fact, scattered all over the surface of Pamlico and Core Sounds. In 

 the larger rivers of New England adult birds winter way north to the upper Con- 

 necticut valley, and great numbers stay in most of the Great Lakes. The only thing, 

 as far as can now be seen, that will impair their numbers is the scourge of oil along 

 our coastal waters. Probably no species of duck in eastern North America suffers so 

 little from persecution during the open season. If our better-class ducks yield from 

 ten to twenty-two per cent of their numbers to the flesh-pot, as we know they do 

 from the proportionate return of banded individuals, this one can hardly lose two 

 per cent ! Although this is a very common autumn migrant at Wenham Lake, in fact, 

 about the third most abundant duck, it represents only five per cent of the total 

 number of ducks shot in twenty -two years! 



The numbers upon European shores are about the same as on our own and as far 

 as I know they are holding out satisfactorily. 



Enemies. Allan Brooks (1922a) has made a number of observations on the activi- 

 ties of the White-headed Eagle on the northern Pacific coast and has come to the 

 conclusion that this bird was very destructive indeed to adult Golden-eyes as well 

 as to many other ducks. When it is realized that on Queen Charlotte Islands there 

 were at least four eagles to a mile of shore-line, and that at one point forty or fifty 

 could be seen in a single day, we can see how much destruction is possible. Grebes, 

 loons, gulls, coots, ducks, moulting Canada Geese and Sooty Grouse were among 

 the victims. 



Audubon, in the Ornithological Biography, says that he several times surprised 



