000 Brooks, Notes on American Ducks. |july 



Clangula islandica. Barrow's Golden-eye. 



This is an attempt to find a reliable method for separating 

 two perfectly distinct species. For Barrow's Golden-eye is a 

 perfectly distinct species and has always been recognized as such, 

 yet it would be more than difficult for an ordinary man to identify 

 a series of specimens by the aid of any of the works of reference 



1 have come across. 



Even the best authorities themselves seem uncertain as to the 

 reliability of their points for distinguishing the females and young 

 of the two species. 



This has probably led to the slighting references and inadequate 

 descriptions by minor authors. 



Barrow's Golden-eye is not a ''perpetuated accident of varia- 

 tion" except to those who know nothing of the bird. The adult 

 males are not only easily distinguishable in the hand by at least 

 eight points of difference (including structural) but are readily 

 identified in the field as far as one can separate one species of 

 duck from another. 



Millais in his 'British Diving Ducks' is the only author who 

 recognizes this, probably because he is the only one familiar with 

 the species in life. 



The crescentic cheek mark, the purplish head, the black wing 

 bar, and the spotted scapulars, are the marks usually given for 

 field identification of the adult male; but the most striking differ- 

 ence is the very black appearance. 



Adult males of the Common and American Golden-eyes are 

 very white birds, the body looks almost altogether white, just as 

 a male Bufflehead's does, especially when sitting. The adult 

 male Barrow's on the other hand looks to have a body more black 

 than white. The most conspicuous feature of a duck at rest is 

 the flank. Whatever color the flank feathers are, they will domi- 

 nate the mass of the bird, as they overlap the whole wing and 

 sometimes even a portion of the back. 



Thus a fully plumaged Ringneck drake looks to be almost as 

 white as a Scaup, a Black Brant looks more white than black, 

 and so on. 



The flank feathers in Barrow's Golden-eye (adult male) are 

 heavily margined with black, fully two-thirds of an inch wide, 



