AMERICAN WIDGEON. 591 
ple, others the back dusky, with little or no white, and that irregularly 
dispersed. ; 
The female has the front and sides of the same white; head and 
half of the neck, blackish brown ; breast, spreading round to the back, 
a dark sooty brown, broadly skirted with whitish ; back, black, thinly 
sprinkled with grains. of white: vent, whitish; wings, the same as in 
the male. 3 \ 
The windpipe of the male of this species is of large diameter ; 
the labyrinth, similar to some others, though not of the largest kind; it 
has something of the shape of a single cockle-shell; its open side, or 
circular rim, covered with a thin, transparent skin. Just before the 
windpipe enters this, it lessens its diameter at least two thirds, and 
assumes a flattish form. : 
The Scaup Duck is well known in England. It inhabits Iceland 
and the more northern parts of the continent of Europe, Lapland, 
Sweden, Norway, and Russia. It is also common on the northern 
shores of Siberia. It is very frequent on the River Ob. Breeds in the 
north, and migrates southward in winter. It inhabits America as high 
as Hudson’s Bay, and retires from this place in October.* 
a 
AMERICAN WIDGEON.—ANAS AMERICANA. —Fic. 283. 
Le Canard Jenson, Pl. enl. 955.— Buff. ix. p. 174.— Arct. Zool. No. 502. — Lath. 
iii, p. 520. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2798. 
MARECA AMERICANA. —SrerHens.t 
Mareca Americana, Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool. xii. p. 135.— North. Zool. ii. p. 445.— 
Anas Americana, Bonup. Synop. p. 384. 
Tus is a handsomely-marked and sprightly species,’ very common 
in winter along our whole coast, from Florida to Rhode Island, but 
* LATHAM. | 
t This species is closely allied to the European Widgeon, and may be taken as 
the American analogue. They seem to meet each other about the Arctic circle ; 
that of America extending beyond it, and that of Europe reaching to the European 
verge. They will form the types of Stephens’s genus Mareca, which will prob- 
ably stand in the rank of a more subordinate group only. ‘The form is one of con- 
siderable interest, possessing many combinations, which may be found to connect 
some parts of the natural system. The bird of Europe, except in the breeding 
season, is mostly an inhabitant of the sea-shore ; during a severe winter, a few stray in- 
land to the larger lakes and rivers, but as soon as a recurrence of moderate weather 
takes place, they return to their more favorite feeding grounds. In Britain they are 
mostly migratory, and at the first commencement of our harder weather, are found 
in vast flocks on the flatter coasts, particularly where there are beds of muscles, 
and other shell fish. During day, they rest and plume themselves on the higher 
shelves, or doze buoyant on the waves, and only commence their activity with the 
approach of twilight. At this time they become clamorous, and rising in dense 
flocks from their day’s resort, proceed to the feeding grounds, generally according 
to the wind in the same tract. At the commencement of winter, they are fat and 
delicate, much sought after by the sea sportsmen. and are killed in numbers by per- 
