125 [Vol. xxxiii. 



OS. neglecta from the Kermadec Islands, both of the dark 

 and light phases, have the shafts of the primary-qnills white 

 and the toes distinctly longer, while in the birds from 

 South Trinidad, both (E. trinitatis and (E. arminjoniana 

 (including (E. wilsoni, which is merely a darker phase of 

 the latter), the shafts of the primaries are blackish and 

 the toes distinctly shorter. The difference in the shafts of 

 the quills does not appear to have been noted previously, 

 but is very apparent. It will be seen by slightly opening 

 the wing of the Cheshire specimen that the shafts of the 

 primary-quills are conspicuously white." 



Mr. Ogilvie-Grant also exhibited an abnormally marked 

 female example of the Wigeon [Mareca penelope), and 

 said : — 



" A female example of a Wigeon killed in Tralee Bay, 



Kerry, on the 20th of November, 1913, after, a heavy gale 



from the N.W., was recently brought to the Museum for 



identification. Mr. C. W. Hulse, who shot the bird with 



others out of a very large flock of Wigeon, believed it to be 



a female of M. americana. This, however, is not the case, 



though the plumage is different from that of the Common 



Wigeon. It appears without doubt to be a very old 



fimale assuming male plumage. It will be noticed that 



many of the median wing-coverts are mostly white and the 



inner black secondary-quiils, the 7th and 8th in the series, 



have a distinct patch of metallic green towards the base of 



the outer web. Mr. Millais, in his ' Natural History of 



British Surface-feeding Ducks/ does not give any very 



definite characters for recognizing the females of the 



American and Common Wigeon. They are, however, easily 



distinguished by the axillaries, which are white speckled with 



grey in the Common Wigeon and pure white in the American 



species. This character has already been pointed out in my 



' Key to the Species of Anatidse ' in ( The Gun at Home 



and Abroad/ i. p. 294 (1912), and I am not aware that 



anyone else has noticed it. It is, however, a very valuable 



means of distinguishing between the two species, and appears 



to be a perfectly constant character." 



