BIRDS OF ICELAND 65 



back and rest of wing black. In ' eclipse plumage ' it 

 may be distinguished from the female by its retaining 

 traces of the white cheek-patch. The female has a 

 reddish-brown head, followed by a white collar and a 

 grey-brown neck and shoulders; white alar speculum, 

 divided into three by black bars ; back grey-brown, rest 

 of underparts white. 



The food consists of mollusca, small Crustacea, and 

 a certain proportion of vegetable matter. 



Barrow's Goldeneye does not gain its English (or 

 rather American) name from the John Barrow who 

 visited Iceland in a yacht in 1834, and subsequently 

 wrote a fairly readable book of travels — but from 

 Barrow of North-west Passage fame (the Barrow of 

 'Barrow's Straits' and 'Point Barrow'). Barrow's 

 Goldeneye is a pretty common bird in Northern and 

 Arctic America, but is_gnly found in Iceland in the 

 01d_World, though it has been known to stray to other 

 parts of Europe. 



The culmen is the length of the bill, measured along 

 its upper surface from where the feathers of the fore- 

 head end, to the tip. 



The tarsus, or, more correctly, tarso-metatarsus, is 

 the long joint above the foot; the apparent 'knee' 



E 



