156 Brewster, Barrow's Golden-eye in Massachusetts. [April 



that it was not a Barrow's Golden-eye. Moreover, I then had — 

 and have still, for that matter — other specimens almost exactly like 

 it and I continue to see them in our markets. In my opinion all such 

 birds should be referred to americana, despite the fact that some 

 of them appear to approach rather closely to islandica. 



The points of differences between the female of islandica and that 

 of americana are still involved in no little doubt or obscurity. Few 

 ornithologists seem to have given them much personal attention, 

 and I know of but two whose published statements concerning them 

 appear to have been based on a careful study of any considerable 

 number of specimens. One of the authors is Mr. Ridgway. In 

 Volume II of the 'Water Birds of North America,' published in 

 1884, he says (on page 42) that the females of the two species are 

 "so much alike that, with the series at our command (about twenty 

 specimens, including six unquestionably referable to C. islandica), 

 we. must acknowledge our inability to give infallible points of dis- 

 tinction. The examples which are known to represent C. islandica 

 differ from the positively determined females of C. glaucion [i. e., 

 americana] 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 grayish brown; (2) the greater 

 wing-coverts are distinctly tipped with black, forming a conspicuous 

 dusky stripe between the two larger white areas of the wing, which 

 in C. glaUcion are (usually, at least) merged into one continuous 

 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." 

 To all this I fully agree although I doubt if the characters here 

 discussed by Mr. Ridgway equal in value or constancy certain others 

 of which he makes no mention in this connection. 



The other author to whom I have just alluded is the late Dr. 

 J. Bernard Gilpin. In a paper entitled 'The Golden Eyes, or 

 Garrots in Nova Scotia,' 1 published more than thirty years ago, 

 he has much of interest to say about the species americana and 



1 Transactions Nova Scotia Inst. Sci., Vol. IV, 1878, pp. 390-403. 



