404 ANATIDJ;. 



beak is rather narrower than that of its European relative, 

 and nearly a quarter of an inch longer ; the tracheal 

 labyrinth, or rather osseous vesicle, considerably smaller ; 

 scarcely exceeding in magnitude that of a Teal." 



The Author was indebted to Mr. Bartlett for the oppor- 

 tunity of giving a figure, description, and measurements 

 from this specimen : now in the collection of Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney, and, apparently, the only authentic British-taken 

 example in existence ; assuming that it really was killed in 

 this country, of which there is no actual proof. Thompson 

 has asserted his belief that in February, 1844, a second 

 specimen of the American Wigeon was shot by Henry Bell, a 

 wild-fowl shooter, on Straugford Lough, near Belfast ; adding 

 that this wild-fowl shooter, who was an intelligent man, and 

 had followed the practice since he was able to carry a gun, 

 was certain of having killed other birds of the same species 

 in Belfast Bay, but never any so far advanced towards the 

 adult male plumage, and therefore the less exciting his 

 attention. He described the bird as "a Wigeon in the 

 plumage of a Teal " (B. of Ireland, iii. p. 112). The example 

 was not preserved. Mr. Thomas Edward, of Banif, states 

 in 1860 (Zool. p. 6970), that he had one which was shot 

 on the Burn of Boyndie in January, 1841; but afterwards he 

 threw it away. Again, in ' The Zoologist ' for 1864 (p. 8962) 

 there is the bare — and unquestioned — statement by Mr. S. H. 

 Carter, that " an American Wigeon had been shot on the 

 Essex coast"; and in the same publication for 1870 (p. 2182), 

 a correspondent writes that he had been told that a bird of 

 this species had been shot near Barnstaple ! As nothing 

 further has been heard of these rarities, the accuracy of the 

 identification must remain in doubt. 



Messrs. Marmottan and Vian state that a female, in the 

 collection of the former, was taken at Le Crotoy, Somme, 

 on the l;3fch April, 1875. Mr. Dresser has refused this 

 species a place in his ' Birds of Europe ' ; alleging as his 

 reason, the probability that the examples recorded had 

 escaped from confinement ; but against this assumption 

 must be set Mr. P. L. Sclatcr's statement (P. Z. S. 1880, 



