342 AMERICAN WIDGEON. 
grey ; the other parts as described above, but the upper tail-coverts 
black at the end. In some individuals the top of the head is reddish- 
white, in others light red, in others pure white; in some, most of the 
smaller wing-coverts are white, in others grey or brownish-grey; in 
some the throat is whitish, in others black. These differences, no 
doubt, depend upon age and season. 
The American Widgeon has been considered distinct from the 
European ; not on account of any difference in size or form, or texture 
of plumage, but because it has in certain stages a green band on the 
side of the head, which the European bird is said not to have. The 
mirror is the same in both; the wing-coverts are white or grey in both ; 
the crown is white, or cream-coloured, or orange-brown, in both; but 
in the European the head and neck are described as reddish-chestnut, 
and in the American as yellowish-white. Now, in fact, American birds 
sometimes have the head and neck red, and European Birds sometimes 
have the green streak on the side of the head. In short, on comparing 
specimens from America, with others from India and Norway, I can- 
not perceive any essential difference. At the same time, not having 
traced our Widgeon through all its gradations, and being equally un- 
acquainted with all those of the European and Asiatic Widgeon, I can- 
not positively affirm that Anas Americana is identical with Anas Pe- 
nelope. 
A male preserved in spirits presents the following characters. 
The roof of the mouth is deeply concave, with a median prominent 
line, and numerous irregular small tubercles on the sides, with several 
larger ones at the fore part. Two large branches of the supra-maxillary 
nerve run in thisridge, as in otherducks. The tongue is 1 inch 5 twelfths 
long, with numerous straight, pointed papillae at the base, a median 
longitudinal groove, and a thin broadly rounded point. The eesopha- 
gus, a bcd, is 10 inches long, narrow, dilating a little on the lower 
part of the neck, where its diameter is 4 inch. The proventriculus, 
bc, is 8 twelfths broad; its glands oblong, 2 twelfths in length, and 
occupying a belt 1 inch 4 twelfths in breadth. The gizzard, e fg, is 
extremely large, of a nearly regular elliptical form, placed obliquely, 
its length 1 inch 8 twelfths, its breadth 24 inches ; its lateral muscles 
extremely large, the left, ¢, 1 inch 2 twelfths in thickness, the other, 7, 
1 inch and 1 twelfth ; the inferior muscle, g, only 1 twelfth. In the 
was 
