92 MARECA AMERICANA. 



the feathers are dusky, barred and broadly margined with 

 reddish-bi'own. The feathers of the sides, and under the 

 tail, are broadly barred with dusky and light reddish-brown, 

 as are the smaller lower wing-coverts, the larger grey ; the 

 other lower parts white. 



Length to end of tail 19 inches ; wing from flexure 9^ ; 

 tarsus 1^ ; middle toe l-j^^, its claw jV- 



Variations. — Among males I have never seen two indi- 

 viduals exactly alike. The females are pretty uniform. The 

 young vary extremely. The differences observed I am unable 

 to refer to any distinct formula. The European birds are 

 similar in this respect ; and they so resemble the American, 

 that in a collection of both I could not distinguish with cer- 

 tainty those of the two continents. 



Habits. — Viewed as British, the American Wigeon has 

 been recognised by Mr. Bartlett, in London, in the winter of 

 1837, two specimens, a male and a female, having attracted 

 his regard in the midst of a row of common Wigeons. He 

 left the female, however, but preserved the male, Avhich has 

 been figured and described by Mr. Yarrell. Mr. Blyth had 

 previously given an account of it in the third vokmie of the 

 Naturalist. Its " tracheal labyrinth " was small, " scarcely 

 exceeding in magnitude that of a Teal." This was also the 

 case with that of a male from America, which I dissected for 

 Mr. Audubon, and of the digestive and respiratory organs of 

 which I have given an account, together with a figure, in the 

 fourth volume of the Ornithological Biography of that enthu- 

 siastic ornithologist, who, however, on bringing together a 

 number of American and European skins, could no more than 

 myself see any specific difference among them. It is not 

 known where Mr. Bartlett's London specimens Avere shot. 

 Mr. Thompson mentions an adult male shot on Strangford 

 Lough, in the spring of 1844, by Henry Bell, a Wigeon- 

 shooter, who had killed other but less mature individuals in 

 Belfast Bay. 



