WIDGEON 
169 
white. Breast of nearly same color as head, very indistinctly banded with blackish; flanks reddish 
brown. Rest of lower surface pure w'hite. Under tail-coverts white, with some black bars. Wing- 
coverts gray, tipped with white. Speculum black, rump gray, tail dark browm. Under wing-coverts 
and axillars as in male. The bright rusty-colored head fades by the spring so that it may become 
almost, if not quite as gray as in the American Widgeon. Some birds, apparently young of the year, 
have very gray heads. 
Iris dark brown. Bill slate-blue. Legs and feet as in male. 
Wing 232-245 mm.; bill 31-34; tarsus 37-40. 
Weight: almost half a pound (0.22 kilograms) lighter than the male. 
Female in First (Juvenal) Plumage: Very closely resembles adult female, but the tail-feathers 
are shorter and blunter at the tips. I am not sure that I can always tell the young from the adult 
female by plumage alone, but Lord Percy tells me that he can tell young specimens by their 
“plainer” appearance, and by the difference in the outer wing-coverts. 
Young Male in First Plumage: Similar to young female but a few more or less vermiculated 
feathers soon begin to appear on the mantle, together with some green on the speculum. Before ver- 
miculation is apparent, the differences are very subtle. Lord Percy, who has bred many and handled 
them at the age of seven weeks, says he had no difficulty in picking out the sexes. The characters 
he used were size, a richer color of the browns in the males, and characteristic light-colored bars 
on the mantle feathers of males. To the ordinary observer the sexes would probably appear identical 
at so early an age. 
Young Male in First Winter: Wing-coverts gray. The complete white wing patch never assumed 
until spring, and not always until later than that. 
Male in Eclipse: In general appearance like the adult female, but the black markings on the cheeks, 
chin and throat are apt to be more accentuated. The flanks are much richer in color than those of the 
female, as are also the mantle and the scapular region. Vermiculated feathers may still be present 
on the mantle or among the scapulars. The white wing patch is the same as in the winter 
plumage. 
Downy Young: Differs from the young of the Mallard in the complete absence of an orbital stripe, 
and the much darker, almost jet black, of the upper surface, particularly the top of the head and the 
back. The sides of the head are more rufous, and not so yellow as in the Mallard, and the wing patch 
is brown instead of yellowish. The rump and scapular patches are certainly smaller than in the 
Mallard, but they are not absent. The head and bill are smaller than in the young Mallard. Com- 
pared to the American Widgeon these downy young are darker and grayer above and rather whiter 
below while the sides of the head are more rust-colored and less yellowish. I am not sure that these 
characters w'ould hold in every case for the down color of young ducks is rather variable. 
DISTRIBUTION 
Breeding Range 
The Widgeon is a far-northern breeder and a far-southern winterer, and is consequently found 
throughout a wide latitude in the Old, and to some extent also in the New World. The species breeds 
north to 71° north latitude or even farther, and southward to 45° or even 42° though only occasion- 
ally south of 60°, excepting in eastern Europe and western Siberia. 
