784 
U S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS—ZOOLOGY-GENERAL REPORT. 
Sp. Ch. — Male. Tail of 14 feathers. Bill blue, the extreme base and tip black. Head and neck pale buff, or faint 
reddish yellow, each feather banded narrowly with blackish, so as to give the appearance of spots. The top of the head from 
the bill is pale unspotted creamy white ; the sides of the head from around the eye to the nape, glossy green, the feathers 
however, with hidden spots, as described ; chin uniform dusky. Forepart of breast and sides of body light brownish or 
chocolate red, each feather with obsolete grayish edge ; rest of under parts pure white ; the crissuin abruptly black. The 
back, scapulars, and rump, finely waved transversely anteriorly with reddish and gray, posteriorly with purer gray, on a brown 
ground ; a little of the same waving also on the sides. The lesser wing coverts are plain gray ; the middle and greater are 
conspicuously white, the latter terminated by black, succeeded by a speculum, which is grass green at the base, and then 
velvet black. The tertials are black on the outer web, bordered narrowly by black, the outermost one hoary gray, externally 
edged with black. The tail is hoary brown. The upper coverts are black externally. The axillars are white. 
The female has the head and neck somewhat similar, but'spotted to the bill. Wings as in the male. The black of 
tertials replaced by brown ; the gray of the lesser coverts extending slightly over the middle ones. Back and scapulars with 
rather broad and distant transverse bars of reddish white, each feather with two or three, interrupted along the shafts. These 
are much wider and more distant than in the male. Length, 21.75 ; wing, 11 ; tarsus J 42 ; commissure, 1.80. 
Hub .—Continent of North America. Accidental in Europe. 
The blackish chin appears to he found only in very highly plumaged birds. The top of 
the head is sometimes pure white. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
Sex and 
age. 
Locality. 
When col¬ 
lected. 
Whence obtained. 
Orig. 
No. 
Collected by— 
Length. 
Stretch 
of wings. 
Wing. 
Remarks. 
1310 
3 
Mar. 24,1844 
S. F. Baird. 
21.75 
35.50 
11.00 
932 
<3 
April 28,1843 
20 00 
33.50 
10.25 
286 
o 
.do. 
April 10,1841 
6895 
A 
D. Gunn. 
5781 
o 
o$ 
Platte river, K. T. 
July 11,1856 
Lieut. Brvan. 
92 
W. S. Wood. 
5133 
3 
Mar. 24,1856 
186 
21.00 
34.50 
11.25 
N. M. 
eyes dark brown; 
feet gray. 
5453 
Oct. 14,1856 
21.00 
30.00 
9.75 
9713 
3 
9704 
9705 
9706 
28 
9715 
9717 
9716 
MARECA PENELOPE, Bon. 
English Widgeon. 
Jinas penelope, Linn. Syst. Nat. 1,1766, 202.— Gm. I, 527.— Temm. Man. II, 840. European specimens. Giraud, 
Birds L. Island, 1843, 307, Am. sp. 
JMareca penelope, Bon. List, 1838. 
Mareca Jutularis, Eyton, Mon. Anat. 1838, 118. 
Fp. Cii.—S imilar to M. americana. Head and neck reddish brown, without bars ; a very small green patch round the eye. 
Length, 20 ; wing, 10.60; tarsus, 1.52; commissure, 1.64. 
Hab .—Old World. Accidental on the Atlantic coast of United States. Greenland. 
The European widgeon is so frequently shot along the Atlantic American coast as to be justly 
considered as belonging to our fauna, and not as a mere straggler. Every year a few specimens 
are found in the New York market, shot chiefly along the coast of Virginia, Carolina, and 
