I 35 
Brewster, Rare Massachusetts Birds. 
ON THE OCCURRENCE, IN MASSACHUSETTS, OF 
CERTAIN RARE OR INTERESTING BIRDS. 
BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 
European Widgeon {Mareca penelope) . — Mr. James T. Clark, 
the well-known Boston taxidermist, has recently shown me a 
mounted specimen of this species which was shot in Monponsett 
Pond, near Halifax, Massachusetts, October 20 , 1899 , by a Mr. 
Shindler who keeps a small shooting shanty or house for the 
accommodation of sportsmen who visit the pond in pursuit of water 
fowl. The M. penelope came in to decoys in company with a 
small flock of American Widgeon of which' several were killed at 
the same time and two, an adult male and female, sent to Mr. 
Clark for preservation with the European bird. The latter is. a 
fine old male in remarkably handsome plumage. The creamy 
white of the forehead and crown is strongly tinged with chestnut; 
the sides of the head are rich chestnut finely spotted with green. 
Mr. Clark tells me that the bird was very fat and that its stomach 
contained a few freshwater shells and a quantity of seeds of 
aquatic grasses. It is, I believe, the first specimen that has ever 
been reported from any part of New England. 
Auk, XVIII, April., 1901, p, / 3 
