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22 THE CONDOR Vol. XlII from limb 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. She 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 Jt?ly 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 quietly a. pproached 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 Iobtain. The cares of nesting were over and the Cuckoo was once more the wild shy bird of the upland timber. From 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. COURTSHIP OF THE AMERICAN GOLDEN-EYE OR WHISTLER ( CLANGULA CLAJVt;ffLA AMERICANA) By VILLIAM BREWSTER 1 WITH DRAWINGS BY I,. A. FUERTES LTHOUGH Dr. C. W. Townsend has given us a recent and admirable ac- count 2 of the manner in which the males of the Americhn 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. They were noted briefly on loose slips of paper when I was making them, 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 they were fresh ii? my mind and recollection, I shall quote from it almost literally, making, indeed, no changes save such as seem absolutely ffecessary. The figures illustrating some of the poses assumed by the birds when "sh6wing off" have been kindly drawn for me by Mr. Fuertes from rough sketches in my note book. The journal runs as follows: t3ack t3ay t3as[n, t3oslon, Massachusell?, Feb. 27, ?9o9. 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 ( Clang?uh? clang?ula americana). Dr. C. W. Townsend gave me some account of them last year, just after he had witnessed them in February 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 22rid I think). I have therefore taken. advantage of the first favorable opportunity to learn something of the matter at first hand. When I left our house about nine o'clock this morning the sky was 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 Fahrenheit. There was a light easterly wind, but it began to die away soon after I reached my Read before the American Ornithologists' Union Congress at Washington, November 13, 1910. Auk XXVII, no. 2, April 1910, pp. 177-179.