60 



DtJCKS, GEESE AND SWANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



GLAUCIONETTA ISLANDICA {Gmel.). 



Barrow's Golden Eye. 



Male : Head and neck, dark bluish purple ; 



rest of iindei- parts, white; a crescent-shaped spot 

 of white on tlie cheeks at l)ase of bill; a baud of 

 white about two inches wide passes around the neck 

 and joins the white of tlie sides and breast ; rest of 

 upper parts, l)hLck; wings, Idack; aud wiug coverts, 

 heavily marked with white, and many of the second- 

 aries, white ; tail, black. 



Wing, 9.25; bill, 1.2.5; on side, 2; tail, 4; 

 tarsus, 1.50. 



Female : Resembles the female American Golden 

 Kye but is somewliat larger; head, cinnamon 

 brown ; lower throat and under parts, white, tinged 

 with gray on the upper breast and sides of the body ; 

 back, gray, slightly mottled with brown, shading 

 into In-own on the rump ; wings, black ; many of the 

 secondaries, white, and the greater and lesser wing 

 coverts, tipped with grayish white. 



Wing, 8.60; bill, l.i50; on side, 2. 



GlauciuDutta islandica (niak')- 



M'hile the male birds of this and the preceding species are quite different, 

 the females cannot always he distinguished. The female Barrow's Golden Eye 

 is usually larger ; and the locality where the specimen is taken should always 

 be considered. Barrow's Golden Eye is rare on the Atlantic coast, while the 

 American Golden Ej^e is one of the most well-known birds to New Eno-land 

 gunners, who know it under the name of " Whistler." It breeds from the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence and northern Rocky Mountsiins, northward to Green- 

 land and Alaska ; the nest is usually phiced in a hollow stump or tree. The 

 eggs are pale grayish blue, usually from seven to ten in number, and meas- 

 ure 2.40 X 1.75 inches. 



