2 ^ 
THE COXDOR 
Vol. XTII 
destination and alighted from the electric car at the farther end of Harvard Bridge. 
No birds of any kind were then visible above (i. e., to the northwestward of) the 
bridge; but just below it I at once saw fifty or sixty Golden-eyes .scattered about 
singly, in pairs and in small flocks on the slightly ruffled water. Walking down 
the roadway at the rear of the line of houses that front on Beacon Street I came to 
a pile of lumber on the recently filled parkway land about one hundred yards from 
the bridge and at the very edge of the river. Here I found a comfortable seat on 
which I remained for over an hour watching the birds through my glass and taking 
down brief notes of their behaviour from time to time. The lumber screened me 
somewhat from their view, but I doubt if this made any particular difference; for 
they did not seem to notice me when I stood up and walked about. Those nearest 
at hand were within shotgun range, those farthest removed not over two hundred 
yards away; the others were dispersed over the intermediate space, occurring most 
numerously, ]ierhaps, about niidway between its outer and inner confines, one 
hundred yards or so from where I sat. As many of them kept diving and shifting 
under water from one group to the next it was impossible to count them accurately, 
but the total number was not far from sixty. There were about thirty fully adult 
males, perhaps ten immature males (showing only a little white on cheeks and 
scapulars), and some twenty females. Most of the females appeared to have uni- 
colorcd and dark brown or blackish bills, but one showed a conspicuous bar of golden 
yellow on the culmen just behind the nail and a w^ell marked dusky band crossing 
the white on the wing. This bird wms evidently closely similar to one that I sent 
to Professor Baird in December, 1871, which he pronounced to be an example of 
Bncephala Icelandica"^ but which I afterwards concluded was an aberrant spec- 
men of americcuia. Another female had a short, abruptly tapering bill which 
appeared to be almost zvholty o f a rich chrome ycllozi' color. The wdiite on its 
wings was crossed by a conspicuous black bar and the brown of its head and neck 
was at least two shades deeper than in any of the other females, while its head had 
a purplish sheen which shouted every time the sunlight struck it at just the right 
angle. All this I saw most plainly, for the bird was twice wnthin forty yards 
of me and for half an hour within one hundred yards; moreover it w^as repeatedly 
joined by one or more females of the common Golden-eye with which I w’as thus 
enabled to directly compare it. Although I do not claim to have positively identi- 
fied it, I have really no doubt that it was a perfectly typical representative of Bar- 
row’s Golden-eye. Dr. C. Mb Townsend tells me that he observed a similar look- 
ing female near the same place on February 22nd. The one seen by me on the 
morning of the 27th kept by itself for the most part; but occasionally it joined, or 
was joined by, some of the American Golden-eyes, and once it sw’am a long dis- 
tance in company with the female having the yellow bar on the bill, both birds 
being followed and most assiduously courted by sev'en or eight full-plumaged 
Whistler drakes who, moreover, continued to devote themselves to the female 
Barrow’s Crolden-eye after the other bird of the same sex (the aberrant americana) 
had left the group. 
I had not been long at the lumber pile when the wind died awa}' completely. 
During the next half hour the entire Basin was almost without a ripple and shiti- 
ing in the sunlight like a burnished mirror. The haze, too, had nearly disap- 
peared. As the sun was behind me its light aided, rather than interfered with, 
my observation of the Golden-eyes. The females were comparatively inconspicu- 
ous, partly because of their sober coloring but also, I thought, because they habit- 
1 cf. Hrew.ster. Aiik xxvi. Apr. 1909, jjp. 154-lv‘'5. 
