264 AMERICAN WIDGEON. 



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 cannot perceive any essential difference. At the same time, not 

 having traced our Widgeon through all its gradations, and being equally 

 unacquainted with all those of the European and Asiatic Widgeon, I cannot 

 positively affirm that Jinas Jlmericana is identical with Jlnas Penelope. 



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 

 this ridge, as in other Ducks. 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 oesophagus, abed, is 10 inches 

 long, narrow, dilating a little on the lower part of the neck, where its 

 diameter is \ inch. The proventriculus, b c, is 8 twelfths broad; its glands 

 oblong, 2 twelfths in length, and occupying a belt 1 inch 4 twelfths in 

 breadth. The gizzard, efg, is extremely large, of a nearly regular elliptical 

 form, placed obliquely, its length 1 inch S twelfths, its breadth 2^- inches; 

 its lateral muscles extremely large, the left, e, 1 inch 2 twelfths in thickness, 

 the other,/", 1 inch and 1 twelfth; the inferior muscle, g, only 1 twelfth. In 

 the oesophagus are contained slender leaves of grasses; in the gizzard some 

 of these leaves and other vegetable matters, small seeds, and a great quantity 

 of sand. The cuticular lining or epithelium is dense, slightly rugous, much 

 thickened on the spaces opposite the middle of the lateral muscles. The 

 duodenum, g h i, is 5^ inches in its first curve, g h, and is then reflected for 

 7 inches, passes backwards under the kidneys and forms several convolu- 

 tions. The intestine, g h ij k I, is 6 feet 2 inches long, \ inch in diameter 

 in its duodenal portion, gradually contracts to 4 twelfths at the distance of 

 18 inches from the pylorus, again enlarges to 5 twelfths, and near the rectum 

 to 7 twelfths. The rectum is 4|- inches long; the cceca 9 inches, their 

 diameter for nearly 2 inches being 2 twelfths, after which they are enlarged, 

 their greatest diameter being 4 twelfths. The liver is large, the right lobe 

 being 3|- inches long, the left 2|-. 



The trachea, ?7i, is 7^ inches long, of moderate diameter, the rings round- 

 ish and ossified, about 140 in number, its breadth at the top 4^ twelfths, 



