260 BAY, SEA OR DIVING DUCKS 



Left, head of male American Golden-eye. Right, head of male Barrow's Golden-eye. 



DESCRIPTION 



ADULT MALE. WINTER PLUMAGE: Head and upper neck, black, highly glossed 

 with metallic green, in some lights, violet; crest puffy; face, with round white patch 

 between eye and base of bill; neck, short and white; bill, black shorter than head; 

 eye, bright golden yellow. Body. Back and rump, black; scapulars, inner, black, 

 outer, white with black edges; chest and breast, white; belly, white, with dusky on 

 sides at rear; sides, white, with longer feathers of side and flank narrowly edged 

 with black; feet, bright orange or yellow, with dusky webs and claws. Tail, slaty 

 grey to dusky, under surface lighter; upper coverts, black, tipped with whitish; 

 under coverts, white, marginally slaty grey. Wings. Lesser coverts, forward and 

 inner ones black, rest white; middle coverts, white; greater coverts, white, though; 

 basally black (outer surface of closed wing preponderately white); primaries, slaty 

 black; secondaries, mainly white, outer ones blackish; tertials, blackish; lining and 

 axillars, dusky. 



ECLIPSE PLUMAGE: The moult into partial eclipse starts in July or August 

 and, at its height, the plumage resembles that of the juvenile male. The head 

 and neck become mottled and brown, the white face-patch becomes indistinct, and 

 brownish feathers appear on the sides. The full-plumaged wing is renewed. 



AUTUMN PLUMAGE: From the partial eclipse plumage of the late summer, 

 in which it resembles the juvenile, the adult male, in early autumn, commences a 

 moult into winter plumage. The wing is as in winter plumage. In early stages, 

 greenish-black feathers appear on the head among the mottled-brown feathers of 

 the eclipse plumage, and the white spot before the eye contains some dark 

 feathers; the neck and sides are marked with brownish; many new, black feathers 

 may be found on the back, and black and white ones on the scapulars, these 

 parts, however, are still mottled with brown. The moult continues progressively 

 through November, and by early December most adult males are in full winter 

 plumage; backward individuals retain a few brown feathers on back and sides. 



ADULT FEMALE. Head, snuff brown, less puffy that that of male; neck, short, 

 with broad white collar incomplete behind: hindneck, grey, washed with brown, 

 continuous with brown of head; bill shorter than head, dusky in autumun, and 

 dusky with yellowish tip in spring, or sometimes mostly yellow in this season 

 (a female taken near Toronto in early November, 1941, had bill all-yellow; colour, 



