within the Limits of the United States. 4:53 



The bills are very dissimilar ; that of our well known species 

 being lengthened, and rather depressed at its base, while that 

 of Barrow's bird is very high at the base and very short ; tlie 

 measurement of the specimen before me being an inch and a 

 quarter high at the base, by one and three quarter inches in 

 length. The size of the bills in both species varies considerably 

 (I have a female of Buoephala Islandica with the bill not quite 

 an inch by an inch and a quarter long), but never have 1 seen 

 the largest hill of the last named species equal in size to the 

 smallest one of ^. Americana. 



The color on the sides, and under tail coverts of the common 

 bird, is not so extensively distributed, nor so dark as in the 

 Kocky Mountain Garrot. 



The females of the two species closely resemble each other, 

 the principal difference consisting in the smaller bill and darker 

 color of the head of B. Islandica., which is a very dark brown, 

 while the other species is snuff color, — in its larger size, and in 

 having, like the males, the color of the head to extend further 

 down the neck. 



As with the males, the females of Barrow's Golden Eye have 

 the sides, upper part of the breast, and under tail coverts of a 

 much darker hue (and more extended, particularly on the 

 lower part of the abdomen), than those of our common species, 

 and this dark color is separated from the pure white of the 

 breast, by an irregular line of light brown. The color of the 

 eyes is very different, that of B. Americana being a pale yel- 

 low, while its relative's is a reddish orange. 



The young male is still in the livery of the female, but is 

 considerably larger in size, the head much darker, being of a 

 blackish brown, and the upper part of the breast is nearly of a 

 uniform white with the lower parts, and the white is com- 

 mencing to show upon the flanks. 



The black bar on the wing, so plain in the female, and so 

 conspicuous in the old male, has hardly made its appearance in 

 the present example, and but a single feather of the scapulars 



