") 
TIIIv Cox DOR 
Vol. XIII 
from linii) to limb, uttering from time to time, a low “kuk-kuk”. She was 
unusually gentle and her attitude was one of curiosity more than fear. vShe soon 
satisfied her curiosity, however, and glided away into the brush. Not another 
glimpse could I get of her, though she answered my call several times. 
On July 26 I again visited the lagoon. For nearly two hours I searched the 
brush in vain. From time to time I heard a bird calling a long distance up stream. 
At last one answered my call near by, and I (juietly approached the spot from 
which the note came. I then repeated the call, only to have it answered farther on 
up stream. This continued; in all the time I was there, not a glimpse of a Cuckoo 
did I obtain. The cares of nesting were over and the Cuckoo was once more the 
wild shy bird of the upland timber. F'rom the depths of the brush-grown banks, 
out over the deep still ponds of the old lagoon, floated an occasional “wandering 
voice”, and another season of nesting troubles and paternal duties in the life of 
the California Cuckoo was over. 
COlT^TvSHIP OF THF: AMFJRICAN GOTDHN-EVF: or WHISTLFIR 
1 FA. 1 A7,Y 7.. 1 CLAX(;rL. 1 . 1 MARK 1 Ab 1 ) 
Hy WII.Ll.VN BRIAVSTFR l 
WITH DK.A.WINOS BY I,. A. Fl'KKTKS 
A lthough Dr. C. \V. Townsend has given us a recent and admirable ac- 
count^ of the manner in which the males of the American Golden-eye pay 
court to the females, this subject is still comparatively novel and so very full 
of interest that I am tempted to offer some observations of my own regarding it. 
The}' were noted briefly on loose slips of paper when I was making tliem, and 
written out more fully in my journal only a few' hours later. As the journal de- 
scription records them exactly as they impressed me at a time when the}' were fresh 
in my mind and recollection, I shall quote from it almost literally, making, indeed, 
no changes save such as seem absolutely necessary. The figures illustrating some 
of the poses assumed by the birds wdien “showdng off” have been kindly drawn 
for me by Mr. F'uertes from rough sketches in my note book. The journal runs as 
fol low's: 
Rack Ray Rasiiy Boston, Massacknsctis, Feb. 2 ~, iQog. I saw' and heard 
today for the first time, under exceptionally favorable conditions, the courting ac- 
tions and love notes of the American Golden-eye ( Clanyiila clauyula anicricaua) . 
Dr. C. W. Tow'iisend gave me some account of them last year, just after he had 
witnessed them in Februar}' or March. On February 24 of the present year he 
was kind enough to notify me that the birds had already begun to perform ( on the 
22nd I think). I have therefore taken advantage of the first favorable opportnnitv 
to learn something of the matter at first hand. 
When I left our house about nine o’clock this morning the skv w'as cloudless, 
but a thin mist or haze obscured distant objects. The air had a sharp, frosty 
“tang”, although the thermometer had already risen from 26° to 34° F'ahrenheit. 
There W'as a light easterly w'ind, but it began to die away soon after I reached my 
1 Read before the .American OriiitholoKists' Union Congre.ss at Wa.shingrton. November 13. 1910. 
2 Ank XXVII. no. 2, April 1910, pp. 177-179, 
