BucErnALA islandica and Bucephala clangula. — Recently my 
attention was drawn, by Mr. Welch, to the peculiar shape of the feathers 
which form the white scapular band in the male Barrow’s Golden-eye. In 
this species the scapular feathers are white along the shaft, and black on one 
or both edges, usually both. In the second species these feathers are also 
white along the shaft, and black-edged, but in the Barrow’s Golden-eye the 
terminal part of the white breaks off, and leaves the black edges projecting 
beyond ; so that the end of the feather is of much the same shape that a 
longitudinal section of the lower half of a champagne bottle would be. 
This breakage does not take place in the common Golden-eye. 
In view of the general similarity of these two birds, such a simple char- 
acter of the male Barrow’s Golden-eye is not without interest That the 
light-colored barbs of a feather break more easily than the dark barbs is 
well shown in the worn plumages of our Golden Woodpeckers and in the 
genus Totanus. But the shedding that takes place in the Golden-eyes is 
not of this class, but belongs to the same class as that which takes place 
in the red nuchal patch of some Woodpeckers. In the case of the 
Golden-eyes the color of the back is considerably darkened. 
This peculiarity has held good for all the specimens examined by me, 
some seven or eight in number. — J. A. Jeffries, Boston , Mass. 
Bull, N.Q.O. 5, July, 1880, p. /$>?. 
Food of the Golden - eyed Buck, — We are indebted 
to Dr. B. H. Warren, .State' Ornithologist of Pennsylvania, 
for the opportunity to determine one of the food resources 
of the golden-eyed duck (Glaucionetta clangula ameri- 
c ana). On the 18th cf January Dr. Warren bought an 
adult rrndSof this species in a market'' at 'Philadelphia, 
Pa., and, btf the following d ayjf or wfemed to us. the con- 
tents of its' 1 crop :and gizzard. He wrote that the ‘ ‘ 'small 
rounded ,and egg-shaped bodiestwhen the bird was opened 
seemed to be held together by a greenish colored mem- 
brane.)’ The /bird wffl shot ou-tha Susquehanna River in 
the neighhqr^o.od of Tdrif Deppsrt. ;VDr. -AS’ K. Fisher, of 
the DmsnbH of Ornithology and Mammalogy of the De- 
partment of Agriculture, submitted the food materials 
to one of the/ botanists of the ^Department and learned 
that they word cppapose^tof tubers; from the subterranean 
stems of Ctarai The feircular ftuBers are scarcely one- 
eighth of pn inch in diameter and consist of a thin and 
brittle shell inclosing a snow white mass of starchy crys- ; 
tals. We did notlascertain the species constituting this j 
food mass. One species of Chara is popularly known as j 
“ feather-beds” and another is called “ stone-wort.” 
