784 



U S. p. E. E. EXP. AND SUEVETS — ZOOLOGY — GENEEAL EEPOET. 



Sp. Cn.—Male. Tail of 14 feathers. Bill blue, the extreme base and tip black. Head and neck pale bufF, or faint 

 reddish yellow, each feather banded narrowly with blackish, so as to give the appearance of spots. The top of the head from 

 the bill is pale unspotted creamy white ; the sides of the head from around the eye to the nape, glossy green, the feathers 

 however, with hidden spots, as described ; chin uniform dusky. Forepart of breast and sides of body light brownish or 

 chocolate red, each feather with obsolete grayish edge ; rest of under parts pure white ; the crissum abruptly black. The 

 back, scapulars, and rump, finely waved transversely anteriorly with reddish and gray, posteriorly with purer gray, on a brown 

 ground ; a little of the same waving also on the sides. The lesser wing coverts are plain gray ; the middle and greater are 

 conspicuously white, the latter terminated by black, sticceeded by a speculum, which is grass green at the base, and then 

 velvet black. The tertials are black on the outer web, bo'rdered narrowly by black, the outermost one hoary gray, externally 

 edged with black. The tail is hoary brown. The upper coverts are black externally. The axillars are white. 



The female has the head and neck somewhat similar, but spotted to the bill. Wings as in the male. The black of 

 tertials replaced by brown ; the gray of the lesser coverts extending slightly over the middle ones. Back and scapulars with 

 rather broad and distant transverse bars of reddish white, each feather with two or three, interrupted along the shafts. These 

 are much wider and more distant than in the male. Length, 21.75 ; wing, 11 ; tarsus 1.42 ; commissure, 1.80. 



Hab. — Continent of North America. Accidental in Europe. 



The blackish chin appears to be found only in very highly plumaged birds. The top of 

 the head is sometimes pure white. 



List of specimens. 



MARECA PENELOPE, Bon, 



English Widgeon. 



Jtnas jienelofe, Linn. Syst. Nat. 1, 1766, 202. — Gm. I, 527. — Temm. Man. II, 840. European specimens. Girahd, 



Birds L. Island, 1843, 307, Am. sp. 

 Mareca penelope, Bon. List, 1838. 

 Mareca fistularis, Eyton, iMon. Auat. 1838, 118. 



Sp. Ch. — Similar to M. americana. Head and neck reddish brown, without bars ; a very small green patch round the eye. 

 Length, 20 ; wing, 10.60 ; tarsus, 1.52 ; comnoissure, 1.64. 



Hab. — Old World. Accidental .on the Atlantic coast of United States. Greenland. 



The European widgeon is so frequently shot along the Atlantic American coast as to be justly 

 considered as belonging to our fauna, and not as a mere straggler. Every year a few specimens 

 are found in the New York market, shot chiefly along the coast of Virginia, Carolina, and 



