trace this statement to its source but it must have originated with Mr. 
Sturtevant and it may have been taken from one of his letters, afterwards 
destroyed. 
In Millais’s admirable ‘Natural History of the British Surface Feeding 
Ducks’ I find a figure (No. 3, Plate XVII) of an “ immature male” European 
Widgeon, “ coming out of the eclipse plumage into winter dress, age 16 
months.” Males of this age and condition somewhat resemble the females, 
from which they may easily be distinguished, however, by the presence of 
'■ conspicuous grayish mottling on the scapulars and by a large white patch 
on the wing. From fully adult males in corresponding dress they differ, 
according to Millais, only in having the white on the wing somewhat less 
pure and widespread. Judged by this test my Rhode Island specimen is 
evidently mature, for the white on its wings is immaculate and of nearly 
maximum extent. In respect to every other detail of color and marking 
the bird agrees almost perfectly with the representation of the European 
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 perwlope, 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 
Teexamining 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. 
Auk 26, Apr-1900, p. %<g. 
