326 BUCEPHALA ISLANDICA 



DISTRIBUTION 



Barrow's Golden-eye is one of the more uncommon American species, the details of whose distribu- 

 tion are still very imperfectly known. The difficulty of distinguishing it, especially the females and 

 young, from the Common Golden-eye, makes it appear even rarer than it really is. 



Breeding Range 



Actual satisfactory breeding records for this species are very rare, yet they must be particularly em- 

 phasized in determining the range, because the males take long flights after the female has begun to 

 . . . sit and their presence in mid-summer is by no means acceptable evidence of the species' 



nesting in the locality. The duck is not rare in summer as far north as the Kuskokw T im 

 and Yukon Rivers, Alaska. About the base of the Alaska Peninsula, Osgood (1904) found it fairly 

 common, yet for the whole of Alaska there are only four definite breeding records, namely: Lake 

 Clark, Chilcat, Chichakov Island and Sitka (Nelson, 1887; U.S. Biological Survey). 



In northern Canada the Barrow's Golden-eye has been taken (undoubtedly non-breeding or sum- 

 Northern m er wanderers) as far north as Fort Anderson (R. MacFarlane, 1908), Fort Providence 

 Canada and Fort Rae (Preble, 1908). In British Columbia specimens were seen in the Stikine 



British River region in June (Swarth, 1922) and these were probably breeding birds, for this 



Columbia Golden-eye has been found nesting about Hazelton and in the Babine Mountains (E. A. 

 Preble, U.S. Biological Survey). Farther south in British Columbia the species nests commonly, 

 especially in the Cariboo Mountains, at Lake La Hache and in the Okanagan Valley (Fannin, 

 Alb 1891; A. Brooks, 1903, 1920; Munro, 1918). Mr. William Rowan of the University 



of Alberta at Edmonton, writes me that in May, 1923, he saw some Barrow's Golden- 

 eyes for the first time in that vicinity. The species, however, nests in southwestern Alberta, at 

 Banff (Raine, 1892) and along the east base of the Rocky Mountains, north, at least, to Smoky 

 River Lake. 



In our western States this Golden-eye is said to occur in summer throughout the interior of Wash- 

 ington, though no nests have actually been found (W. L. Dawson and Bowles, 1909), but in Oregon 

 Western nests have been taken on Paulina and Diamond Lakes (Cooke, 1906; U.S. Biological 

 States Survey). It also breeds in northwestern Montana, particularly in Glacier National 



Park (F. M. Bailey, 1918; A. A. Saunders, 1921), while in Wyoming it is known to nest commonly, 

 particularly in and about Yellowstone National Park (Grave and Walker, 1913; U.S. Biological Sur- 

 vey). The southern limit of the breeding range is in Colorado, where nests have been found as far 

 south as Dolores County (Brewer, 1879; Morrison, 1888a). 



Farther east specimens have been taken on Lake Manitoba, Shoal Lake and at the mouth of the 

 ^ ... Red River, Manitoba (E. E. Thompson, 1891) but these were unquestionably summer 



stragglers. Similar casuals have been seen or taken at Montreal and Quebec (U.S. Bio- 

 logical Survey). Wintle (1896) tells of finding a nest at Missisquoi Bay, Lake Champlain, Vermont, 

 but this undoubtedly refers to the Common Golden-eye, as also the breeding records of Merriam 

 (1882) for Point des Monts, of Comeau (1909) for Godbout, and of Schmitt (1904) for Anticosti. 

 Labrador ^ ut summer specimens have been taken on Prince Edward Island and on the Labrador 



coast at the Eskimo River and at Okak (U.S. Biological Survey). L. M. Turner (MS.) 

 says the species occurs all along the Labrador coast in summer and records a specimen taken on 

 Davis Inlet in July. It seems to me that there must be some locality in northern Labrador where the 

 species nests, for otherwise it is practically impossible to account for the numbers that have been 

 recorded from the North Atlantic coast. Hantzsch (1908) says he found the species a "not rare" 

 breeding bird near Killinek on Ungava Bay. He shot a female and young of the year still retain- 

 ing down among the feathers, on August 30. It certainly seems likely that this Golden-eye breeds 

 in the Ungava region. 



