Vol. XVlIin Brewster, Rare Massacktisetts Birds. \'K^ 



iqoi J ^O 



190 



ON THE OCCURRExNCE, IN MASSACHUSETTS, OF 

 CERTAIN RARE OR INTERESTING BIRDS. 



BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 



European Widgeon {Mareca penelope) . — Mr. James T. Clark, 

 the well-known Boston taxidermist, has recently shown me a 

 momited specimen of this species which was shot in Monponsett 

 Pond, near Halifax, Massachusetts, October 20, 1899, by a Mr, 

 Shindler who keeps a small shooting shanty or house for the 

 accommodation of sportsmen who visit the pond in pursuit of water 

 fowl. The M. penelope came in to decoys in company with a 

 small flock of American Widgeon of which several were killed at 

 the same time and two, an adult male and female, sent to Mr. 

 Clark for preservation with the European bird. The latter is a 

 fine old male in remarkably handsome plumage. The creamy 

 white of the forehead and crown is strongly tinged with chestnut ; 

 the sides of the head are rich chestnut finely spotted with green. 

 Mr. Clark tells me that the bird was very fat and that its stomach 

 contained a few freshwater shells and a quantity of seeds of 

 aqyatic grasses. It is, I believe, the first specimen that has ever 

 been reported from any part of New England. 



European Teal {Nettion creeca) . — On February 26, 1896, 

 Mr. Clark brought to me in the flesh, in fresh condition, an adult 

 male European Teal which he had received on the 24th from Rev. 

 E. a. Phillips of Sagamore, Massachusetts. Mr. Phillips said 

 that the bird had been caught, a few days previous to the date on 

 which he sent it, in a steel trap and that, in company with two 

 other Teal of similar appearance (but probably belonging to the 

 American species) , it had been seen repeatedly in the same place. 

 This is, I believe, only the second known instance of the occur- 

 rence of the European Teal in New England, the first being that 

 of the bird, also an adult male, taken by Mr. George H. Mackay 

 at Muskeget, March 16, 1890 (see Auk, VII, 1890, p. 294). 

 Both specimens are now in my collection. 



American White-fronted Goose {A/iser albifnms gatfibeli). — 

 Mr. Clark has also obtained for me a male of this species in fully 



