Clangula clangula americana. Vol. XVII] 1900 ] BREWSTER, Breeding Habits of Golden-eye Duck. 207 NOTES ON THE BREEDING HABITS OF THE AMERI- CANGOLDEN-EYED DUCK OR WHISTLER (CLANGULA CLANGULA AMERICANA). BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. Plates VI and VII. In 1897 I spent the last two weeks of May and nearly the whole of June at Lake Umbagog, living in a house-boat and devoting my time to studying and photographing birds and nests. Besides a cook and a man to manage the boat, I had with me two assistants, Mr. R. A. Gilbert, who helped me in various ways, and Mr. Clarence H. Watrous, a keen and persistent nest-hunter, to whose tireless efforts I was indebted for the subjects of some of my best notes and pictures. Our floating house proved admirably adapted to the purposes of such a trip, having, in addition to comfortable living and sleeping accommodations, a small but well arranged dark room in which the negatives were developed. By sculling when the weather was calm, with the aid of a sail when there was a favoring breeze, we were able to change our ground whenever we wished to do so, although we often found it profitable to spend several days, and occasionally as much as a week, in one place, moored to the shore at the head of some sheltered cove, where the songs of shy forest birds rose on every side, and the delicious scent of the balsams stole in through the open cabin windows, or riding at anchor sufficiently far out in the lake to escape the black flies and mosquitoes. Our daily excursions were made chiefly by water in canoes, and extended not only to every part of the lake, but for considerable distances up the rivers which flow into it. Altogether it was a delightful experience, full of interest, and not wanting in novelty, despite the fact that the region was one with which I had long been familiar. During this season I learned much that was new to me concerning the breeding habits of the Golden-eyed Duck or Whistler. This species still nests abundantly at Umbagog, especially about the outlet and throughout the bottom lands of the Lower Megalloway River, where the forests were killed half a century ago by