OCCURRENCE OF EUROPEAN BIRDS IN N. S. — PIERS. 231 



and its being found in Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland, 

 make it almost doubtless that it finds its way here, as other 

 species do, under stress of weather, along that route, which 

 would furnish resting places, and that it does not fly directly 

 across the Atlantic from the east. 



It has been mentioned that our own American Widgeon 

 or Baldpate {M. americana) occurs casually in Europe. It 

 breeds as far north as lat. 68°, which is about the same as 

 that of Iceland. 



European Teal. Nettion crecca (Linn.). A. 0. U. No 

 138. — The first known occurrence of this European species in 

 Nova Scotia, was a specimen taken near Halifax, by Dr. J. B. 

 Gilpin, on 1st September, 1854. It was mounted by th(> 

 late Andrew Downs and shoAvn at the Dublin International 

 Exhibition of 1865, and was purchased there by Sir iVrthur 

 Guinness for his collection. (See Gilpin, "Sea Fowl of N. S.," 

 Trans. N. S. Inst. Nat. Sc, v, 141; Chamberlain, Catalogue 

 of Canadian Birds, 1887; and Downs, "Catalogue of Birds 

 of N. S.," Trans. N. S. I. N. S., vii, 148). 



Another specimen, an adult male, not hitherto recorded, 

 was shot at Mineville, near Lawrencetown, Halifax county, 

 N. S., on 14th February, 1913, by J. R. Shaw of Mineville; 

 and was purchased by the Provincial Museum (accession 

 no. 3980). The long scapulars are creamy-white internally, 

 and black externally, producing two very conspicuous con- 

 tiguous longitudinal bands, as is typical in this species. 

 There seems to be also a very slight difference in the tint 

 of the green of the speculum of this specimen as compared 

 with that of the Green-winged Teal. Another duck which 

 was shot in company with the one just mentioned, lacks 

 these bands, and is evidently a male of the ordinary Green- 

 winged Teal {Nettion carolinensis) , which otherwise much 

 resembles it. This specimen is also in the Museum collec- 

 tion (accession no. 3981.) The two above records are the 

 only ones for this province known to me. 



