.399 GOLDEN EYES, Oil GARROTS—GILPIN. 
divergency in form of wind-pipe, existing in the males though 
lost in the female, must mark them as two different species, al¬ 
though in the males a little more or less white on head and 
back, a little purple reflection in one, and a higher base of bill 
and forehead marks the only difference, and in the females as 
regards colour no difference can be found. The tails, wings and 
feet of both, in the most minute examination, affording no dif¬ 
ferential types. 
The Spirit, or Buffle-Head Duck. 
Description of male in Provincial Museum, Halifax,—colour, 
head and part of neck, duck-green with purple reflections ; a broad 
white bar beginning behind the eye, spreads out to the back of the 
head. The breast, belly, the rest of the neck and under parts 
white. The back velvet black, the primaries black with brown¬ 
ish wash ; the tail and tail coverts brown with a slate wash. 
The under tail coverts white, with some slaty pencilling about 
the anus and legs. On the shoulders, the outside axillaries, the 
shoulder and the wing coverts make one continuous white patch. 
In the female, also in the museum, the head, neck, back are dark 
brown, the primaries and tail rather lighter. There is an ob¬ 
scure white patch upon the cheeks. The throat, the sides of the 
breast and flanks shaded brownish white. Beneath white, 
but brownish beneath tail. The greater wing coverts with 
part of secondaries, make a small interrupted white bar. 
The tail in both sexes is long and graduated, the male 
much the longer, the bills bluish-black and legs yellowish. 
So far from a mounted specimen ; but from Sir John Richard¬ 
son we find, that the length of the male is about sixteen 
inches, and of the wing 6 inches and 8 lines, and the length of 
the female 14J inches, and that in the male, of the secondaries, 
five or six have their outer edges white, things that we could not 
get from the mounted specimens. This bright and active little 
duck, with its tumid and brilliant head in the male, and very 
plump form, leaves our inland lakes to which it has arrived dur¬ 
ing the fall from its Arctic breeding grounds, in November for 
the sea coves and sheltered bays. He remains with us all winter 
—leaving us in April. He is a diligent diver, and in hard cold 
