140 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Food. —Largely shellfish and other aquatic animals, including crabs, isopods, and 
snails, and also seeds and vegetation, as panicum, eel-grass, wild celery; besides 
dragon-fly nymphs, and caddice larvae. 
General Habits. —The green head with the round white spot at the 
base of the bill is enough to distinguish the drake Golden-eye in his full 
dress; while the puffy brown head, light collar, and white wing patch 
are good field characters in the female. In flight the Golden-eye is 
known by “the big round head and short stocky neck 77 and by the 
extraordinary whistling sound made by its wings. This musical whis¬ 
tling of the wings, Mr. Alfred M. Bailej r says, “is one of the pleasing 
features of winter work along Alaskan waters” (1927, p. 187). 
As the birds have been seen in New Mexico as late as February and 
March, fortunate observers may be able to see them engaged in their 
remarkable courtship actions, which, in Massachusetts, Doctor Town¬ 
send says, “ begin on mild days in February and continue until the 
departure of the birds for the north in April. The courtship action 
varies considerably, 77 the Doctor continues, “but a typical and complete 
one may be described as follows: One or more males swim restlessly back 
and forth and around a female. The feathers of the cheeks and crest of 
the male are so erected that the head looks large and round, the neck 
correspondingly small. As he swims along the head is thrust out in 
front close to the water, occasionally dabbing at it. Suddenly he springs 
forward, elevating his breast, and at the same time he enters on the most 
typical and essential part of the performance. The neck is stretched 
straight up, and the bill, pointing to the zenith, is opened to 
emit a harsh, rasping double-note, zzee-al , vibratory and searching in 
character. The head is then quickly snapped back until the occiput 
touches the rump, whence it is brought forward again with a jerk to the 
normal position. As the head is returned to its place the bird often 
springs forward kicking the water in a spurt out behind and displaying 
like a flash of flame the orange-colored legs. 
“This appears to be the complete performance, and the female, 
although usually passive, sometimes responds by protruding her head 
close to the water in front, and then bringing it up so that it also points 
to the zenith 77 (1910, pp. 177-178). After a careful, detailed study Mr. 
Brewster, in an article in which the poses were shown by Louis Agassiz 
Fuertes, characterized the gesticulations as the nod, the kick, the forward 
thrust, the upward thrust, and the back thrust; and the “fixed and 
peculiar attitudes, 77 as the crouching pose, the woundc 1-duck pose, the 
bow-sprit pose, the mast-head pose, and the folded duck-skin pose 
(1911a, p. 25). 
The Golden-eye's nesting habits, though not so spectacular as the 
courtship performances, are most interesting. Speaking of a nest 
in a hollow tree that he watched, Mr. Bent says, “We heard a great 
