LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 19 



on the chest until the brown of immaturity disappears. Thus the advance of 

 plumage continues to take place until March, when the young male has gained 

 a considerable portion of its first spring dress, which is more or less similar 

 to the adult male, except that the black and white scapulars are never fully 

 attained, nor are the hind neck or flanks complete. The wings and tail still 

 show the bird to be immature until the latter part of June or early July, when 

 the usual complete molt takes place, the whole of the bird going into a partial 

 eclipse similar to the adult male. In September the eclipse is shed, and all 

 traces of immaturity have disappeared, so that in the following month, or, 

 more correctly speaking, November, the bird is adult, at about 16 months. 



The same writer describes the semieclipse plumage of the male, as 

 follows : 



At the beginning of July the adult male undergoes a fairly complete change 

 to an eclipse plumage, although the white feathers in front of the eye are 

 never completely lost. In this month the head and neck become a somewhat 

 dirty gray brown, very light in the throat ; the flanks, hind neck, and upper 

 mantle, also portion of the lower neck and chest are brown with gray edgings ; 

 mantle, scapulars, brown, with light brown or gray edgings or tips ; the whole 

 bird now resembles a somewhat dirty-looking female, but its sex can easily 

 be recognized by its superior size, small white feathers on the head, and by 

 the wings, which always remain the same, which, with the tail and part of 

 the back and tail coverts, are only molted once in the season. The adult 

 male has scarcely assumed its eclipse dress before it again commences to 

 molt into winter plumage, and in the case of all these ducks the process of 

 change at this season may be said to be practically continuous. 



The female undergoes the same sequence of plumage to maturity 

 as the female goldeneye, attaining full maturity at an age of about 

 15 months. The females of these two species are very difficult to dis- 

 tinguish at any age. Mr. Millais (1913) says: 



The characters of the female Barrow's goldeneye, apart from superior size, 

 are the black back and tail, blackish head and longer crest, and general dif- 

 ference of a more intensified black and white. The yellow bill spot is also 

 more extensive. 



William Brewster (1909^) has made an exhaustive study of this 

 subject, and I would refer the reader to his excellent paper on it. 

 I would refer the reader also to a paper on this subject b}^ IT. F. 

 Witherby (1913) and a still more exhaustive treatise by Maj. Allan 

 Brooks (1920). 



Food. — The food of the Barrow goldeneye seems to be the same 

 as that of the common species. Dr. F. Henry Yorke (1899) records 

 it as feeding on minnows and small fishes, slugs, snails, and mussels, 

 frogs, and tadpoles, in the way of animal food ; he has also found in 

 its food considerable vegetable matter, such as teal moss, blue flag, 

 duckweed, water plantain, pouchweed, water milfoil, water starwort, 

 bladderwort, and pickerel weed. Mr. Munro (1918) says: 



The feeding habits of the two species of goldeneye are identical. Both 

 species are greatly attracted by the small crawfish lurking under large stones 

 in shallow water. While hunting these shellfish, the ducks work rapidly along 



