ANATID.E THE SWANS, GEESE, AND DUCKS. 141 



According to Professor Cooke,* the Gadwell "winters abun- 

 dantly in the Gulf States and sometimes in Illinois in mild win- 

 ters; it is also known to winter near a warm spring in Wyo- 

 ming. It breeds locally throughout most of its range." 



SUBGENUS Mareca STEPHENS. 



Mareca STEPHENS, Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii, pt. ii, 1824, 130, Type, Anas penelope LINN. 



SUBGEN. CHAR. Bill small, shorter than the head, rather narrow, the edges parallel to 

 near the end, where they gradually converge to a rounded tip; culmen gently concave; 

 lamellae of the maxillae almost concealed ; feet small the tarsus about as long as the bill. 

 Adult male in winter with the scapulars and tertials (in the North American species the 

 tail-coverts and rectrices also) lanceolate. 



The two North American species of the subgenus Mareca may 

 be distinguished as follows: 



COMMON CHABACTEKS (adult males in winter dress). Forehead white; posterior half 

 of the middle wing- covert region white, forming a large patch of this color; abdo- 

 men immaculate white; speculum velvety black, with or without green. 



1. A. penelope. Head and neck plain rufous, the forehead and part of the crown white; 

 ground-color of the dorsal region, sides, and flanks, whitish. 



2. A. americana. Head and neck whitish, speckled with black, and with a dark metal- 

 lic-green space on the side of the occiput (sometimes continued down the nape); 

 irround-color of the dorsal region, sides, and flanks, vinaeeous or pinkish cinna- 

 mon. 



Anas penelope Linn. 

 WIDGEON. 



Popular synonyms. Europeon Widgeon; Bed-headed Widgeon. 



Anas penelope LINN. S. N. ed. 10. i, 1758. 126; ed. 12, i, 1766, 202. NATTM. V6. 



Deutschl. xi. 1842. 724, pi. 305.-BEINH. Ibis, Hi, 1861, 12 (Greenland). -A. O. U. Check 



List, 1886, No. 136. Broow. Man. N. Am. B. 1887, 96. 

 Mareca penelope SELBY, Br. Orn. ii, 324. BAIED, B. N. Am. 1858, 784; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, 



No. 586. COUES, Proc. Essex Inst. v, 1868, 299 (New England) ; Key, 1872, 268 ; Check List, 



1878, No, 492; 2d ed. 1882, No. 712; B. N. W. 1874, 564 (foot-note). EIBOW. Nom. N. 



Am. B. 1881, No. 606,-B. B. & B. Water B. N. Am. i, 1884,517. 

 Anas coQolca, 8. G. GMEL. Beise i, 1770, 77. 



Mareca ftstularis STEPHENS, Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii f< pt, ii. 1824, 131, pL 50. 

 Wigeon, YABB. Brit. B. ed. 2,iii, 286; ed. 3,iii, 287. flg. 



HAS. Northern hemisphere in general, but less uniformly distributed In North Amer- 

 ica, where, however, occurring not uncommonly in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 

 Virginia. North Carolina. Florida, Illinois, Wisconsin, California, etc.; breeding in the 

 Aleutian Islands, Alaska. 



* Bird Migration in the Mississippi VuUey, p. 65. 



