332 BUCEPHALA ISLANDICA 



eye, perhaps somewhat larger and harder-shelled. The average dimensions of one 

 hundred eggs (Jourdain, in Hartert, 1920a) were 61.8 by 44.8 mm., the maximum 

 and minimum lengths being 68 and 57.6 mm., and the maximum and minimum 

 widths 47 and 42.1 mm. The nest-down cannot be distinguished from that of the 

 Common Golden-eye. 



The incubation period is not absolutely known; Hantzsch's (1905) "about four 

 weeks" is probably nearly right. In 1923 Mr. Wormald received a setting of eggs 

 from Iceland which must have been from three to three and a half weeks old when 

 he got them in Norfolk, England. He set them under a hen on June 27 and they 

 hatched (five of them) on July 28 making a period of thirty-one days, which is long, 

 even for eggs in rather poor condition. 



In our western mountain country the males, curiously enough, suddenly vanish 

 entirely from the breeding area, as soon as the females begin to incubate. Ordinarily 

 by the middle of May they, as well as the immature non-breeding males, disappear 

 at the same time and Allan Brooks has told me that since he has been observing this 

 habit, May 28 was the last date on which he saw an adult male at Okanagan. The 

 same phenomenon has been noted in the case of the Common Golden-eye and also 

 in the Buffle-head. No one seems to have found out certainly where these summer 

 excursions lead, although Brooks thinks they may go directly to the coast. But the 

 fact remains that no corresponding abundance of males has ever been observed on 

 the coast of Alaska before the middle of October (Bailey, MS.). Possibly they go north. 



It is very hard to explain why in Iceland no such summer migration takes place. 

 Indeed, Hantzsch says he has seen groups of males, numbering several hundred, on 

 the Myvatn Lake close to the nesting places as late as the end of July. The species 

 is more nearly sedentary in Iceland than it is with us. 



Status. We, in eastern North America, look on the bird as a very rare duck, but 

 this, of course, is not true of the species as a whole, for all through its mountain home 

 it is remarkably abundant. At times during winter they are even more abundant 

 than the Common Golden-eye on the coast of southeastern Alaska (A. M. Bailey, 

 MS.; Willett, 1921). There is no reason to suppose that they are not holding their 

 own satisfactorily. 



The actual status in northern Labrador is not yet worked out, nor do we know 

 certainly where our Atlantic coast birds come from. It may be that they are merely 

 stragglers from West Greenland and that the Ungava breeding colony may after 

 all be merely a myth. 



It is again quite possible that there are many more females and immatures of this 

 Golden-eye wintering from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Cape Cod in Massachusetts 

 than we think there are. Adult males, although rare, are found among large bodies 

 of Golden-eyes almost anywhere north from Cape Cod. It is only a question of how 



