Io8 DUCK SHOOTING. 



a cluster of small blackish or greenish feathers behind 

 the eye and on the back of the head, and sometimes 

 the sides of the head are minutely streaked with dusky. 

 The breast is purplish gray ; the sides, flanks and back 

 waved with cross-bars of black and white, the effect 

 being somewhat like that of the same parts in the male 

 green-winged teal. The tertiaries, or long feathers 

 growing from the third bone of the wing, are gray on 

 their inner webs and velvety-black, edged with white 

 on the outer. The wing-coverts are white and the spec- 

 ulum or wing-patch brilliant metallic green, sometimes 

 changing to black at the extremity. The upper and 

 lower tail-coverts are black, the other under parts white, 

 the wings and tail brown, the tail often edged with 

 white. The bill is bluish, its nail black, and the legs and 

 feet gray. The length is about i8 inches, wing be- 

 tween lo and II inches. 



In the female the head and neck are yellowish-red, 

 dotted with black or greenish spots and sometimes the 

 top of the head is altogether black. The general color 

 of the upper parts is brown, the feathers being edged 

 and barred with whitish. The wing-coverts, instead 

 of being white, are merely tipped with white, while 

 the speculum is dull black or even in the young some- 

 times grayish. The under parts are white, as in the 

 male. 



The female of the European widgeon is not always 

 to be easily distinguished from certain plumages of the 

 American bird, but its bill and general aspect will al- 

 ways identify it as a widgeon, and a specimen about 



