AMERICAN WIGEON. 
Anas Americana, Witson. AUDUBO 
Mareca Americana, STEPHENS. 
Anas—A Duck. Americanus——-American, 
Tuts Duck is abundant in various parts of North America, 
from the River Saskatchewan and the Columbia, and the shores 
of Hudson’s Bay, through the United States to Florida, 
Carolina, Mexico, Cuba, Martinique, and St. Domingo. 
A pair of these birds were on sale in the London market 
in the winter of 1837-8, as recorded in the ‘Naturalist’ 
magazine, volume iii, page 417. 
In the autumn they depart in flocks from their summer 
quarters. 
They are described as being of a lively and frolicsome 
disposition, and are considered excellent eating. 
They are said sometimes to perch on trees. 
Their food is composed of flies, worms, leeches, small fry, 
beech-nuts, and grain of various kinds; and they do much 
damage in the rice plantations. They come out to feed in 
the evenings. 
The note is a soft whistle, enineieed by the sound ‘whew,’ 
and it is frequently imitated successfully to their destruction. 
The eggs are from six to eight in number. 
Male; length, one foot eleven inches; bill, bluish grey, bordered 
and tipped with black; iris, h:..:—behind the eye a broad dark 
green streak passes backwards. Forehead and crown, dull 
white, on the sides and back pale brownish white, freckled with 
_ black; the feathers at the back of the head a little elongated: 
a white band runs from the forehead to the nape. Neck in 
front, reddish brown. Breast above, white, on the sides 
brownish red, glossed with grey; on the sides it is barred with 
dark lines, below white. Back on the upper part, reddish 
VOL, VU. Die 
