86 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



MARECA PENELOPE (Linnaeus). 

 ETTBOPEAN WIDGEON. 

 HABITS. 



This is an old-world species which has occurred frequently as a 

 straggler on both coasts of North Amercia, as well as in the interior. 

 Tlie Atlantic coast records are nearly all fall and winter records, 

 but in the interior its occurrence seems to be wholly in the spring 

 and on the Pacific coast in the winter. As I know nothing about 

 the habits of this foreign species from personal experience with it 

 and as comparatively little has been written about it in American 

 bird books, I am quoting freely from Mr. J. G. Millais (1902) who 

 has given a very satisfactory life history of the widgeon. 



Spring. — Aa the spring approachea we see on fine days the flocks of widgeon 

 splitting up into smaller parties and engaged in pairing. By the end of March many 

 widgeon have paired, and proceed to their breeding grounds together; but in most 

 cases the northern movement is undertaken in a series of small flocks, which gradually 

 detach themselves from the maiu bodies. These small parties of from 25 to 30 birds 

 follow one another in their migration, often stopping for a few days at some halting 

 place, like the Shetlande or the Norwegian fiords, till, by the middle of April, none 

 are left on our coast except a few stragglers. 



Courtship. — The actual courtship of the widgeon differs somewhat from that of 

 other surface feeders, and the display of the male bird is an interesting one. A 

 female having shown herself desirous of selecting a mate, five or six males crowd 

 closely rot'.nd, hemming her in on every side and persecuting her with their atten- 

 tions. If she swims away, they follow her in a close phalanx, every male raising his 

 crest, stretching out his neck close over the water, and erecting the beautiful long 

 feathers of the scapulars to show them off. He also depresses tlie shoulder joints 

 dowuw-ard, so as to elevate the primaries in the air. All the time the amorous males 

 keep up a perfect babble of loud " Whee-ous, " and they are by far the noisiest of 

 ducks in their courtship. Occasionally the cock birds fight and drive each other 

 off, but ducks are not, broadly speaking, pugnacious birds, and success in winning 

 the admiration of the female is rather a matter of persistent and active attention 

 than physical force. 



Nesting. — The nest of the female widgeon is generally placed at from 10 to 20 

 yards from the nearest water, and generally in coarse grass or heather. Sometimes, 

 like the mallard, she will wander far in the tundra, and one of the only two nesta J 

 have found in Scotland I stumbled on by accident right in the middle of a grousi 

 moor, and far from the lake near which I had been searching the whole morning. 

 Generally from 7 to 10 cream-culored eggs are laid. 



He also refers in a footnote to a nest he found at Scampston, 

 Yorks, which was placed in nettles; I have found the nest of the 

 American widgeon in a similar situation. 



Eggs. — The eggs of the European widgeon are indistinguishable 

 from those of the American widgeon or baldpate. The set usually 

 consists of 7 or 8 eggs, but sometimes as many as 9 or 10 arc laid. 

 The measurements of 117 eggs, as given in Witherby's Handbook 

 (1920), average 54.7 by 38.7; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 59.5 by 38.5, 58 by 41, and 49.9 by 35.2 miUimeters. 



