VA- 
April 15, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
573 
Widgeons of Europe and America. 
HOW TO TELL THE EUROPEAN WIDGEON (MareCCl 
penelope) from the American widgeon 
(Mar era americaiia ) or bald pate. 
It is well known to sportsmen that the wid¬ 
geon of the Old World is not infrequently taken 
in America. It is not, however, realized that 
this bird mijst be far commoner in our waters 
than the long list of recorded instances of its 
capture would indicate, because almost the only 
examples which are noticed as peculiar, and 
therefore saved as specimens, are adult males. 
Such birds must be outnumbered at least three 
to one by females, young males and adult males 
in eclipse plumage—the male widgeon not as¬ 
suming its nuptial dress till near mid-winter. 
It is not surprising that gunners have failed 
to find birds when out of plumage, because orni¬ 
thologists have always been puzzled to distin¬ 
guish with absolute certainty between the Ameri¬ 
can and European species when clothed in these 
nearly similar dresses. The European species is 
usually more ruddy in coloring, especially about 
the head than the American bird in correspond- 
also the shafts of the axillars will be found 
blackish in coior, but this does not affect the 
pure white of the feather as a whole, both of 
the inner and outer webs. 
The accompanying sketch shows at a glance 
the appearance of the whole group of axillars 
in each species, drawn from adult male speci¬ 
mens. 
It is hoped that this note will encourage gun¬ 
ners to examine and report on their hags of 
widgeon, so that we may get a better idea of 
the distribution, migration and numbers of the 
beautiful European bird undoubtedly well estab¬ 
lished and breeding somewhere in this country. 
J. C. Phillips. 
Bluebirds in New Jersey. 
New York City, April 8.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Bluebirds were seen by me for the 
first time this year late in February, although 
a neighbor's boy, who is frequently abroad, told 
me that he had seen them frequently through¬ 
out the winter. This I can readily credit, for I 
saw some in December, after the first cold snap. 
took more than passing interest in the bird 
boxes, their action in befriending the bluebirds 
was surprising, but gratifying, for while I pep¬ 
pered the sparrows with .22 bullets every time 
I saw one while I was at home, the starlings 
acted as wardens during my absence. 
During the active nest building work I often 
let opportunities to shoot sparrows pass, fearing 
that the bluebirds might be frightened away by 
the report, but when I did shoot, the bluebirds 
flew away but returned presently, while the sur¬ 
viving sparrows lost some of their boldness. 
Last year the pair of bluebirds that nested in 
my box in June reared four young ones, and 
all returned once after their first absence in the 
fall, but so far this spring only one pair has 
returned to the old box, although there is room 
in the two boxes for four families. It would 
be interesting to know whether this pair are the 
old birds or two of their offspring. 
Bergen. 
New Publications. 
Hunting With the Eskimos, by Harry Whit¬ 
ney. Octavo, cloth, 453 pages, illustrated 
ing plumage, but this character is not always 
found to hold. Worn or faded specimens of 
the female or young male of the European 
widgeon are almost identical with our American 
species so far as a superficial inspection goes. 
There is, however, a very simple though in¬ 
fallible way of telling the European from the 
American species, regardless of the sex, age 
or plumage of the specimen, and if this point 
is attended to by gunners, we shall soon have 
more accurate information regarding the status 
of the European widgeon in this country. The 
character referred to is the color of the axillars. 
The axillars, which are well developed in ducks, 
are the long, stiff, narrow feathers which are found 
under the wing, lying close to the body of the 
bird, and about four inches in length. They 
rise from a point close to where the wing joins 
the body. In our widgeon these feathers are 
pure white in all plumages, w'hile in the Euro¬ 
pean species they are always gray. 
It is necessary to explain a little further so 
that no confusion may exist. In fully adult 
European widgeon the axillars closed together 
may look almost white, but if the feathers are 
spread apart, the inner web will always be found 
to be distinctly marked with gray. In the Amer¬ 
ican bird, both webs (that is, both sides of the 
central shaft of the axillars) will always be 
found to be white. Occasional specimens some¬ 
times show a very slight dusky discoloration at 
the extreme tips of the feathers. Sometimes 
On March 11 bluebirds were present in num¬ 
bers, and thinking the youngsters of last year’s 
hatching might return to' their home, I put up 
their box, which had been repaired and painted. 
I also put up a new box and the two are on 
high poles thirty feet apart. Sparrows imme¬ 
diately took possession of both boxes and began 
to make nests. I lowered the boxes, cleaned 
them, put them up again, and since that time 
have shot a number of sparrows and frightened 
away others, so that they seem to be less active 
than at first. 
A pair of bluebirds first began to take an 
active interest in the boxes on March 18, though 
they had visited one of them earlier. They in¬ 
spected the old box first, then the new one, and 
this they continued to do at every visit until the 
23d, when they seemed to be content with the 
old box. During that week they dominated the 
sparrows. The latter would alight in a tree 
close to the box and twitter a challenge, then 
both the bluebirds wou'd swoop down and drive 
them away. If the sparrows alighted on the 
new box, the bluebirds drove them from that, 
too. 
Now and then the sparrows would seek help 
from their kind and harass the bluebirds, and 
on two occasions when scrimmages occurred, 
a starling swooped down and drove the spar¬ 
rows off to their winter refuge in a wild cherry 
tree. As starlings, were seen in the vicinity 
every sunny day during the winter, but seldom 
from photographs, $3.50. New York, the 
Century Company. 
With the main facts connected with Mr. Whit¬ 
ney’s journey into the Arctic region, the public 
is familiar through the publicity given his pres¬ 
ence there during the time Commander, now Rear 
Admiral Peary was prosecuting his last and suc¬ 
cessful pole-hunt. Mr. Whitney went along 
merely to hunt and fish, to see the vast region 
and its people, and to collect specimens. While 
he devotes considerable space in the book to 
all these, it is by no means a dry narrative of 
events, but a vivid pen picture of the vicissitudes 
that beset every human being in the Arctic, 
Eskimo as well as American. He lived with the 
Eskimos and they hunted with him. The story, 
and the excellent illustrations from the author’s 
photographs, make a volume of absorbing in¬ 
terest. 
Notes on New England Birds, by Henry D. 
Thoreau. Arranged and edited by Francis 
C. Allen. Cloth, 452 pages, illustrated from 
photographs from life, $1.75 net. New York, 
Houghton, Mifflin Company. 
These notes are taken from Thoreau’s ‘"Jour¬ 
nal” and arranged in compact form for the use 
of bird lovers and those admirers of the great 
naturalist who are most interested in feathered 
creatures. The bird pictures are from photo¬ 
graphs made by IT. K. Job, H. W. Gleason and 
others. 
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