Barrow Goldeneye

By the middle of April each open lake in British Columbia has its conspicuous flock of 40 or 50 courting BARROW GOLDENEYES.

Distinguished in field from the Goldeneye by crescent shape of white spot on head and more black on sides. Females and young not separable in wild state and sometimes not even in hand.

Rare and "winter" Duck in the East.

Sawyer's excellent account follows:

There were usually a number of "inviting" females to be seen floating like half submerged logs on the pond, especially after the dispersed flock had had some little time for feeding. The appearance of the female in this position is remarkable and thoroughly characteristic of her mood. For many minutes at a time the bird looks like a rounded piece of driftwood as she lies half submerged for her entire length, including head, neck and bill. She sometimes emits a low clucking call in this attitude. Here may be mentioned a very striking thing which obtained among the birds in general; that is, the females, so far as one might judge by behavior, were decidedly more precocious than the males in their desire. With a given pair the female's period begins long in advance of the male's and continues unabated until the male's period, only two or three minutes in duration, is over. It was a common thing to see a half sunken duck float and drift invitingly about a drake for a quarter of an hour or more, while he showed not the slightest knowledge of her existence. Occasionally the immediate sequel was a sudden and furious transformation — from the ignored spouse spoiling for attention to the very personification of a "woman scorned;" she would dart with apparently murderous intent at the unresponsive drake, putting him to flight that looked not to the order of his going; yet, no sooner would he come to rest than she would be again on hand, floating invitingly — the all-loving spouse again — outdoing if possible her former abject appeal. Sooner or later — usually sooner than in instances like that above described — the drake complies.

The male sometimes assumes a pose similar to that of the half submerged female. This may be, in his case also, a specific advertisement of desire; but it seemed random, was not one of the definite series of mating acts. There is no attitude or act of the drake coinciding with that prolonged period of the female. Any interest he may feel at that time is certainly well disguised. It is only fair justice to the spectacle itself to record the strangeness of seeing him drifting or slowly swimming in the most every-day posture and manner imaginable while the female drifts, with the fine art of apparent chance, within near contact; often he swims slowly away to avoid her.

The first positive indication of his desire is apt to be a peculiar and animated twitching of the water with his bill; then he is apt to stretch, turning on his side and extending the upper wing and leg — in this he is quite deliberate; pluming of the back feathers follows and looks like a gesture of ostentation. All this has taken but a minute or so (unless the water twitching has been more prolonged than usual); then the upright position is assumed, which marks the beginning of the spurt to the female; the birds are usually within a yard of each other when the spurt begins.

Scarcely a minute is consumed in the entire specific act. While finally, in coitu, they begin to swim in a very small circle a note is repeated at regular intervals of about a second; I wrote it, "Gr-err-er" or "cr-err-er," and it seemed to come from the female, yet the latter point is in doubt. The middle syllable, high and accented, seems jerked forth. Another note (I thought from the drake) is a low cluck; these two notes were timed with each other so that one appeared an echo. As I reflect about it now, there seems a possibility that both calls came from the same individual. Having circled, as mentioned, two or three times around, the pair separates, each bird swimming away instantly from the spot; dabbling and vigorous bathing begins at a distance of some forty feet on the part of the female, rather farther in the case of the male. The male's appearance in this swimming away is noteworthy. He has an extremely self-conscious bearing; in the live bird the effect is enhanced to a ludicrous extent by the regular ticktock movement of the bill from side to side. The set pose, the straight course with uniform speed, the mechanical movement of the head — all give every appearance of an automaton, personifying egotism and wound up to run a set course.