42 



LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS — ANSERES. 



f()rininj{ a largo, somewbiit cuneate, patch. Outer feathers of the sides anil flanks widely edj^cd 

 exteriorly with deep black ; femoral region and sides of crissuni dull black. Lower half of lui k 

 (all round) and entire lower parts (except as described) pure white. Bill bhick (in skin) ; iris 

 bright yellow ; legs and feet pale. Adult fevmle : Head and upper half of the neck dark neiii;i- 

 brown, con»ideral)ly darker and somewhat more purplish than in the female of C. glaucion ; lowi r 



part of the neck, all round, white, sometimes tinpil 

 with gray on the nape. Upper parts dark grayi>li- 

 brown, the scapuhu's, interscapulars, and smaller wiii;,'- 

 coverts tipped with lighter ash-gray ; last twoortlnvi; 

 rows of middle wing-coverts tipped with white, foiiii- 

 ing a broken, rather narrow, transverse patcli ; greali-r 

 coverts with the terminal half of their exposed portinii 

 white, as in the male, but distinctly tipped with bhuk- 

 ish, forming a conspicuous dusky bar between the white 

 of the coverts and that of the inner secondaries. Jii^'- 

 ulum and sides ash-gray, the feathers darker and niori; 

 brown beneath the surface, the breast lighter and more 

 uniform, the flanks darker ; other lower parts pure 

 white. Bill usually party-colored (black and yellow), 

 but sometimes wholly black. 



Adult vuik : Wing, 9.00-9.40 inches ; culmen, l.fiS 

 -1.80; depth of bill at base, .95-1.10, width .75-.sr. ; 

 tarsus, 1.50-1.60; middle toe, 2.45-2.50. Adult feimd. : 

 Wing, 8.25-8.75 inches; culmen, 1.40-1.60; depth of 

 bill, .85-.90 ; width, .70 ; tarsus, 1.30-l.CO ; middle toe, 

 2.15-2.20. 

 Bearing in mind the salient points of diflerence, as given on p. 40, there need never be iiiiy 

 ditliculty in distinguishing the adult male of this very distinct species from that of C. (jlaucim}. 

 With the female, Iiowever, tlie case is very dift'erent ; the two species being so much alike tli:it, 

 with the series at our command (about twenty specimens, including six unquestionably relwiilile 

 to G. islandica), we must acknowledge our inability to give infallible points of distinction. The 

 examples which are known to represent C. islandica differ from the positively determined females 

 of C, glaucion in the following respects : (1) The color of the head and upper half of the neek 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 tlie two 

 larger white areas of the wing, which in C. ylaucion are (usually, at least) merged into one con- 

 tinuous space. Further than these we find no distinction, while indeed some examples are so 

 decidedly intermedi to in both respects as to render it quite uncertain to which species they beloiij,'. 

 Of the two characters named, however, the color of the head is far the more constant, and may, 

 perhaps, be found quite distinctive. 



Male. 



Barrow's Golden-eye, or the Rocky Mountain Goldeu-eye, as it was very appro- 

 priately called by Nuttall, is almost exclusively a North American species, occurring 

 in the interior among the mountains, from Southern Colorado, and probably evoii 

 farther south, to the Yukon on the northwest, and Greenland on the east. It is also 

 a resident in Iceland, and 'n a very few instances straggles into Europe. A siiii,'l(' 

 individual was taken in Spain by Mr. Howard Saunders, and four individuals are 

 recorded as having been taken on the coast of Norway at different times and pluti's. 

 With these exceptions, it is not known to be a European species. 



Up to the present time this species has been strangely overlooked by some writers, 

 while the nature of its geographical distribution has been entirely misunderstood. It 

 was unknown to Wilson, and it escaped the notice of Audubon ; and, more recently, 

 Dr. Coues refers to it in different works as belonging to Arctic America and to Nortli- 

 ern Europe, mentioning it as being the most northerly of the genus, and as having 



