42 



LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS — AN SERES. 



forniinf? a large, somewhat cuneate, patch. Outer feathers of the sides and flanks widely edged 

 exteriorly with deep black ; femoral region and sides of crissum dull black. Lower half of neck 

 (all round) and entire lower parts (except as described) pure white. Bill black (in skin) ; iris 

 bri;'ht yellow ; legs and feet pale. Adult female : Head and upper half of the neck dark sepia- 

 brown, consiilerably darker and somewhat more purplish than in the female of C. glaucion; lower 



part of the neck, all round, white, sometimes tinged 

 with gray on the nape. Upper parts dark grayish- 

 brown, the scapulars, interscapulars, and smaller wing- 

 coverts tipped with lighter ash-gray ; last two or three 

 rows of middle wing-coverts tipped with white, form- 

 ing a broken, rather narrow, transverse patch ; greater 

 coverts with the terminal half of their exposed portion 

 white, as in the male, but distinctly tipped with black- 

 ish, forming a conspicuous dusky bar between the white 

 of the coverts and that of the inner secondaries. Jug- 

 ulum and sides ash-gray, the feathers darker and more 

 brown beneath the surface, the Ijreast lighter and more 

 uniform, the flanks darker ; other lower parts pure 

 white. Bill usually party-colored (black and yellow), 

 but sometimes wholly black. 



Adult male : Wing, 9.00-9.40 inches ; culmen, 1.65 

 -1.80; depth of bill at base, .95-1.10, width .75-.85 ; 

 tarsus, 1.50-1.60; middle toe, 2.45-2.50. Adult female : 

 Wing, 8.25-8.75 inches; culmen, 1.40-1.60 ; depth of 

 bill, .85-.90 ; width, .70; tar.sus, 1.30-1.60 ; middle toe, 

 2.15-2.20. 

 Bearing in mind the salient points of difierence, as given on p. 40, there need never be any 

 dilHculty in distinguishing the adult male of this very distinct species from that of C. glaucion. 

 With the female, however, the case is very difl'erent ; the two species being so much alike that, 

 with the series at our command (about twenty specimens, including six unquestionably referable 

 to G. islandica'), we must acknowledge our inability to give infallible points of distinction. The 

 examples which are known to represent C. islandica difter from the positively determined females 

 of G. glaucion in the following respects : (1) The color of the head and upper half of the neck is 

 considerably darker, being a rich sepia- or snuff-brown, rather than gi'ayish brown ; (2) the greater 

 wing-coverts are distinctly tipped with black, forming a conspicvious dusky stripe between the two 

 larger white areas of the wing, which in G. glaucion are (usually, at least) merged into one con- 

 tinuous space. Further than these we find no distinction, while indeed some examples are so 

 decidedly intermediate in both respects as to render it quite uncertain to which species they belong. 

 Of the two characters named, however, the color of the head is far the more constant, and may, 

 perhaps, be found quite distinctive. 



Male. 



Barrow's Golden-eye, or the Rocky Mountain Golden-eye, as it was very appro- 

 priately called by iSTuttall, is almost exclusively a Nortli American species, occurring 

 in the interior among the mountains, from Southern Colorado, and probably even 

 farther south, to the Yukon on the northwest, and Greenland on the east. It is also 

 a resident in Iceland, and in a very few instances straggles into Europe. A single 

 individual was taken in Spain by Mr. Ho"ward Saunders, and four individuals are 

 recorded as having been taken on the coast of Norway at different times and places. 

 With these exceptions, it is not known to be a European species. 



Up to the present time this species has been strangely overlooked by some writers, 

 while the nature of its geographical distribution has been entirely misunderstood. It 

 was unknown to Wilson, and it escaped the notice of Audubon ; and, more recently, 

 Dr. Coues refers to it in different works as belonging to Arctic America and to North- 

 ern Europe, mentioning it as being the most northerly of the genus, and as having 



