536 BIRDS—ANATIDA. 
Very rare winter visitor. Mr. Winslow informed me that one was 
taken many years since at Cleveland and one at Sandusky Bay. A 
specimen in the possession of Mr. Langdon was obtained there in the 
winter of 1877-8. This is an immature bird. 
On November 4th, 1880, I found a bird of this species in process 
of preparation for the table by a market dealer in this city, who 
informed me that he had obtained it, together with a female Mallard, 
from a sportsman who shot for him in the vicinity of Harrisburg, 
about fifteen miles southwest of this city. He stated that the bird was 
killed on Darby Creek. I have no reason to doubt this statement. I 
obtained a stay of proceedings for sufficient time to make a partial 
desciption of the bird and secure the head and foot. The dealer was kind 
enough afterwards to say that he was very sorry I did not discover the 
bird before he sold it or agreed to dress it for the table, and the gen- 
tleman who graced his table with the only King Hider ever identified in 
the interior of Ohio, remarked to me that he hoped it might be the 
last that he ever attempted to dine upon. 
The sex of this specimen was not determined; the following is the 
description: Head, neck and breast tawny-ashy, deoponine to dull chest- 
nut on top of head, each feather with ashort streak of dusky; back of neck 
and sides as far as wings more decidedly ashy; each feather with a subter- 
minal dusky bar; belly nearly uniform dusky; shoulders and lesser 
coverts dusky with lighter edgings ; quills plain, nospeculum. Scapulars 
and lower sides with tawny-rusty tips. 
Being in doubt as to the specific identification of this specimen, I for- 
warded it to Mr. Ridgway, who kindly writes the following: 
‘The head is that of S. speciabilis, beyond question—perhaps a young male—which 
might account for the difference in color to which you refer; the color varies much, 
however, in both species, and I am of opinion that the specimen is a female. I enclose 
two rude sketches showing a very radical difference between S. spectabilis and S. mollis- 
sima in the anterior outline of the feathering of the head, by which you can invariably 
distinguish the two.” 
Mr. Ridgway’s sketches show clearly the very considerable anatomical 
difference between spectabilis and mollissima. From them it appears that 
in spectabilis the feathers of the culmen extend forward as far as the pos- 
terior end of nostril, those of side of bill falling far short of this. In 
mollissema the reverse is the case, the lateral feathers reaching nearly to 
middie of nostril, while the feathers of culmen do not een farther 
forward than the lateral ones in speciabilas. 
It has been taken at Chillicothe, Illinois, and Milwaukie, Wisconsin. 
Their occurrence on Lake Erie, though not positively within the limits 
of Ohio is noted by Mr. J. A. Allen (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club., v, 1880, 62): 
