WIDGEON 
Mareca penelope. 19 in. 
Crown buffy; head reddish brown; wing coverts white; 
speculum green. Female with blackish speculum, and a 
pale, rusty head, neck, breast and sides, streaked or 
barred with blackish. The Widgeon is an Old World 
duck that rarely, and accidentally, strays to our At- 
lantic or Pacific coasts. It breeds in America only in 
the Aleutian Islands. Its habits are the same as the 
next species, our American Widgeon. 
In the Old World it is regarded as one of the best 
of table ducks. Its food consists of marine and tresh- 
water insects, small shell-fish, seaweed and grass. Its 
nidification is just like that of the Baldpate. 
