The European Widgeon in Rhode Island. — Almost any large collection of 
birds is likely to yield occasional surprises in the way of rarities which have 
been previously misidentified or overlooked. An instance of this hap¬ 
pened only a few weeks ago when I found in my series of American Widgeon 
a peculiarly colored specimen, labeled Anas americana, which I do not 
remember to have ever noticed before. My record books show that it was 
purchased, with a number of other birds, in 1896, from Mr. Edward Sturte- 
vant of Newport, Rhode Island, and that one of my assistants catalogued 
and relabeled it with the others, possibly when I was absent from Cambridge. 
Its original label, still attached to the skin, reads as follows: — “ Dafila 
acuta, 22, Rhode Island, Middletown 20 Sep. 1889. Taken by Edward 
Sturtevant, Collection of Edward Sturtevant.” My assistant wrote in the 
Catalogue, between quotation marks:—“This is the only one I ever saw 
in this locality (salt marshes between 2d and 3d Beaches). ” lam unable to 
Widgeon to which I have just called attention. In his text relating to the 
American Widgeon (which has been taken a few times in Great Britain) 
Millais says (on page 57):— “The old male in eclipse plumage more closely 
resembles the female of his own species than our drake Wigeon — his 
flanks are very grey-brown, and not that rich, red-brown colour seen in our 
bird.” The female, also, is described by him as differing from that of the 
European species in a similar way, having “not so much red-brown on the 
flanks and breast.” 
Although it is not always safe to rely largely on plates and descriptions, 
however accurate, when identifying obscurely characterized birds, the 
evidence just given is sufficient, in my opinion, to warrant a rather positive 
reference of the Widgeon taken by Mr. Sturtevant at Middletown, Rhode 
Island, to Mareca penelope, of which, indeed, it seems to be a nearly typical 
representative. It is, I believe, the first European Wigeon known to have 
been obtained in New England. The second (hitherto supposed to have 
been the first) was shot in Monponsett Pond near Halifax, Massachusetts, 
on October 20, 1899. When I referred to the latter in ‘The Auk’ 1 as a 
“fine old male in remarkably handsome plumage, I had not seen Milla is’s 
book which, indeed, was not published until the following year. On 
reexamining this specimen in the light of his testimony, I find that I was 
not mistaken in regarding it as mature; for its wings closely resemble 
those of the Wigeon killed by Mr. Sturtevant although in most other 
respects it is very unlike his bird owing to the fact that it is in full winter 
plumage. It came into my possession not long after it was recorded 
in ‘The Auk.’ Soon after this I secured the remains of a third European 
Widgeon to which Dr. Townsend has alluded in the following words. 2 
“ There is in Mr. William Brewster’s collection the head and one wing of an 
adult male of this species shot at Marblehead on December 29th, 1900.” 
This statement is not quite correct for I have both wings of the Marblehead 
bird and they indicate plainly that it was not more than six or seven 
months old when killed, being essentially like those of a female Widgeon 
and wholly without the white patches which, according to Millais, are 
sometimes shown by the male soon after the close of his first winter and 
invariably assumed by him before the end of his second autumn; after 
which he never lacks them at any season,— even when masquerading, for 
a brief time in late summer, in the subdued garb so generally like that of 
his mate and so appropriately termed his “eclipse” plumage. — William 
Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 
1 Auk, XVIII, No. 2, April 1901, p. 125. 
2 C. W. Townsend, Birds of Essex County, Massachusetts, Memoirs Nutt. Orn. 
Club, III, 1905, p. 129. 
Ank 26, Apr-1900, p. /ft, 
