Mareca penelope. 19 in.

Crown buffy; head reddish brown; wing coverts white; speculum green. Female with blackish speculum, and a pale, rusty head, neck, breast and sides, streaked or barred with blackish. The Widgeon is an Old World duck that rarely, and accidentally, strays to our Atlantic or Pacific coasts. It breeds in America only in the Aleutian Islands. Its habits are the same as the next species, our American Widgeon.

In the Old World it is regarded as one of the best of table ducks. Its food consists of marine and freshwater insects, small shell-fish, seaweed and grass. Its nidification is just like that of the Baldpate.