536 BIRDS — ANATIDiE. 



Very rare winter visitor. Mr. Winslow informed me that one was 

 taken many years since at Cleveland and one at Sandusky Bay. A 

 specimen in the possession of Mr. Langdon was obtained there in the 

 winter of 1877-8. This is an immature bird. 



On November 4th, 1880, I found a bird of this species in process 

 of preparation for the table by a market dealer in this city, who 

 informed me that he had obtained it, together with a female Mallard, 

 from a sportsman who shot for him in the vicinity of Harrisburg, 

 about fifteen miles southwest of this city. He stated that the bird was 

 killed on Darby Creek. I have no reason to doubt this statement. I 

 obtained a stay of proceedings for sufficient time to make a partial 

 desciption of the bird and secure the head and foot. The dealer was kind 

 enough afterwards to say that he was very sorry I did not discover the 

 bird before he sold it or agreed to dress it for the table, and the gen- 

 tleman who graced his table with the only King Eider ever identified in 

 the interior of Ohio, remarked to me that he hoped it might be the 

 last that he ever attempted to dine upon. 



The sex of this specimen was not determined; the following is the 

 description : Head, neck and breast tawny-ashy, deepening to dull chest- 

 nut on top of head, each feather with a short streak of dusky ; back of neck 

 and sides as far as wings more decidedly ashy ; each feather with a subter- 

 minal dusky bar; belly nearly uniform dusky; shoulders and lesser 

 covertsdusky with lighter edgings; quills plain, no speculum. Scapulars 

 and lower sides with tawny-rusty tips. 



Being in doubt as to the specific identification of this specimen, I for- 

 warded it to Mr. Ridgway, who kindly writes the following : 



"The head is that of yS. speotaMlis, beyond question — perhaps a young male — which 

 might account for the difference in color to which you refer ; the color varies much, 

 however, in both species, and I am of opinion that the specimen is a female. I enclose 

 two rude sketches showing a very radical difference between S. spectaiilis and S. mollis- 

 eima in the anterior outline of the feathering of the head, by which you can invariably 

 distinguish the two." 



Mr. Rldgway's sketches show clearly the very considerable anatomical 

 difierence between spectabUis and moUissima. From them it appears that 

 in spectabilis the feathers of the culmen extend forward as far as the pos- 

 terior end of nostril, those of side of bill falling far short of this. In 

 moUissima the reverse is the case, the lateral feathers reaching nearly to 

 middle of nostril, while the feathers of culmen do not extend farther 

 forward than the lateral ones in spectabilis. 



It has been taken at Chillicothe, Illinois, and Milwaukie, Wisconsin. 

 Their occurrence on Lake Erie, though not positively within the limits 

 of Ohio is noted by Mr. J. A. Allen (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club., v, 1880, 62) : 



