I 
400 
GOLDEN EYES, OR GARROTS—GILPIN. 
days may be seen spread along the shore in pairs, or threes, or 
single. If the weather is warm he keeps further off shore, but 
a storm will drive him far awav to windward seeking a lee, 
where huddled together with Garrots, sometimes even with 
Heralds, whole flocks may be seen nestling almost in contact with 
the coarse beach grasses which line the salt lagoons of the coast, 
or again bravely keeping the open sea, head to windward, and 
couched into his back and tail turned up—the living model of a 
fishing pink. 
I have chosen these two species for a paper, because in the 
first place they differ from all other annatide that I know, in 
having the bills in the female decorated with brighter colours 
than those of the male. The females, and in one instance at 
least the young males of the common Golden eye having lemon 
yellow upon the bills, whilst the males of both species have 
black bills. This vellow sometimes extends to the nostrils, but 
usually shows as a ring about the tips of both mandibles, the 
tips themselves being black; at the same time the far greater 
number of females and immature birds have blaok bills. Thus 
from the many specimens I have studied, I can only conclude 
that the yellow is common to the females of both species, that 
three specimens at least of young common Golden eye had it, 
and that it is transient, and in the old females passes into black. 
The fact that those markings are not very pronounced, and that 
in a series of bills the yellow will pass from bright edge to a 
tranfused yellow wash, sometimes pervading the nostrils, some¬ 
times not, and that sometimes it fades out after a few days, on 
the dead bird, are sufficient to form this conclusion. But the 
fact of the female being higher ornamented than the male as 
regards bills is almost a solitary fact. As in other species this 
coloured bill maybe brighter during the nuptial season, and fade 
darker at other times, and altogether in old age. 
Another reason for choosing these species for a paper is the 
addition of Barrow’s Golden eye for the first time to the 
fauna of Nova Scotia. There is one specimen in the Museum 
of Halifax of a male Barrow, mounted some twenty-five years 
ago, and with no history or date attached, but with that excep- 
