159. MARECA PENELOPE (Linnæus).
EUROPEAN WIGEON.
- Anas penelope Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 126.
- Mareca penelope Salvadori, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1895), 27, 227; Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 218; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1902), 2, 168; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 37.
Basilan (McGregor); Calayan (McGregor); Luzon (Worcester); Mindanao (Celestino). Palaearctic Region from Iceland to Kamtschatka, in winter to Madeira, Abyssinia, Persia, northern India, Burma, China, Japan, Borneo; occurs as a straggler in the Marshall Islands and North America.
“Adult male.—Forehead and top of head buff, rest of the head and neck cinnamon, minutely spotted, especially round the eyes, with bottle-green; chin and throat more or less black; mantle, back, and scapulars gray, crossed with irregular zigzag lines of black; central tail-feathers paler, almost whitish; lateral tail-feathers like the under tail-coverts, black; lower fore neck and sides of breast vinaceous; middle of breast and abdomen white; sides, flanks, and under wing-coverts gray, with zigzag lines like the back; wing-coverts white, the largest tipped with black; primaries uniform dark brown; outer webs of secondaries green, forming a speculum, edged with black; black outer webs of secondaries broadly edged with white; tail-feathers elongated, pointed, and nearly black. Iris dark brown; bill bluish lead-color, tipped with black; legs, toes, and their membranes dark brown. Length, 457; wing, 267; tail, 117; culmen, 39; tarsus, 39.
“Female.—Head and neck pale reddish brown, speckled with blackish; upper parts brown, each feather with pale whitish edges; edges of scapulars reddish brown; breast and sides reddish brown; under surface white; under tail-coverts white, with irregular brown bars or spots; primaries dark brown, secondaries dull black, slightly tipped with white; wing-coverts like back, but the larger ones tipped with white; tail dull grayish brown. Iris brown; bill bluish black.
“Young male.—Resembles more or less the female.” (Salvadori.)
A male taken in Calayan in November measures: Length, 840; wing, 260; tail, 104; exposed culmen, 37. A specimen from Basilan is in very poor plumage.
Genus NETTION Kaup, 1829.
The members of this genus differ from Anas chiefly in being of smaller size and in having the bill narrower and shorter.