Vol i909 :YI ] General Notes. 187 



trace this statement to its source but it must have originated with Mr. 

 Sturtevant and it may have been taken from one of his letters, afterwards 

 destroyed. 



In Millais's admirable 'Natural History of the British Surface Feeding 

 Ducks' I find a figure (No. 3, Plate XVII) of an " immature male" European 

 Widgeon, "coming out of the eclipse plumage into winter dress, age 16 

 months." Males of this age and condition somewhat resemble the females, 

 from which they may easily be distinguished, however, by the presence of 

 conspicuous grayish mottling on the scapulars and by a large white patch 

 on the wing. From fully adult males in corresponding dress they differ, 

 according to Millais, only in having the white on the wing somewhat less 

 pure and widespread. Judged by this test my Rhode Island specimen is 

 evidently mature, for the white on its wings is immaculate and of nearly 

 maximum extent. In respect to every other detail of color and marking 

 the bird agrees almost perfectly with the representation of the European 

 Widgeon to which I have just called attention. In his text relating to the 

 American Widgeon (which has been taken a few times in Great Britain) 

 Millais says (on page 57): — "The old male in eclipse plumage more closely 

 resembles the female of his own species than our drake Wigeon — his 

 flanks are very grey-brown, and not that rich, red-brown colour seen in our 

 bird." The female, also, is described by him as differing from that of the 

 European species in a similar way, having "not so much red-brown on the 

 flanks and breast." 



Although it is not always safe to rely largely on plates and descriptions, 

 however accurate, when identifying obscurely characterized birds, the 

 evidence just given is sufficient, in my opinion, to warrant a rather positive 

 reference of the Widgeon taken by Mr. Sturtevant at Middletown, Rhode 

 Island, to Mareca penelope, of which, indeed, it seems to be a nearly typical 

 representative. It is, I believe, the first European Wigeon known to have 

 been obtained in New England. The second (hitherto supposed to have 

 been the first) was shot in Monponsett Pond near Halifax, Massachusetts, 

 on October 20, 1899. When I referred to the latter in 'The Auk' l as a 

 " fine old male in remarkably handsome plumage, I had not seen Millais's 

 book which, indeed, was not published until the following year. On 

 reexamining this specimen in the light of his testimony, I find that I was 

 not mistaken in regarding it as mature; for its wings closely resemble 

 those of the Wigeon killed by Mr. Sturtevant although in most other 

 respects it is very unlike his bird owing to the fact that it is in full winter 

 plumage. It came into my possession not long after it was recorded 

 in 'The Auk.' Soon after this I secured the remains of a third European 

 Widgeon to which Dr. Townsend has alluded in the following words. 2 

 "There is in Mr. William Brewster's collection the head and one wing of an 



i Auk, XVIII, No. 2, April 1901, p. 125. 



2 C. W. Townsend, Birds of Essex County, Massachusetts, Memoirs Nutt. Orn. 

 Club, III, 1905, p. 129. 



