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 24 THE CONDOR Vol. XIII destination and alighted from the electric car at the farther end.of Harvard Bridge. No birds of any kind were then ;isible 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 sem to notice me when I stood up and walked abou. t. 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, perhaps, about midway 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 fenroles appeared to have uni- colored and dark brown or blackish bills, but one showed a conspicuous bar of golden yellow on the culmen just behind the nail and a well marked dusky band crossing the white on the wing. This bird was evidently closely similar to one that I sent to Professor Baird in December, 1871, which he pronounced to be an example of "tCttcephala ircelandica "l but which I afterwards concluded was an aberrant spec- men of americana. Another female had a short, abruptly tapering bill which appeared to be almost wholly of a ric crome yellow color. The white 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 showed every time the sunlight struck it at just the right angle. All this I saw most plainly, for the bird was twice within forty yards of me and for half an hour within one hundred yards; moreover it Was repeatedly joined by one or more females of the common Golden-eye with which I was 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. W. 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 2th kept by itself for the most part; but occasionally it joined, or was joiled by, some of the American Golden-eyes, and once it swam 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 seven or eight full-plumaged Whistler drakes who, moreover, continued to devote themselves to the female Barrow's Golden-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 away completely. During the next half hour the entire Basin was almost without a ripple and shin- 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- I of. Brewster, Auk XXVl, Apr. 1909, DD. 154-155.