The American Widgeon has been considered distinct from the European; not on account of any difference in size or form, or texture of plumage, but because it has in certain stages a green band on the side of the head, which the European bird is said not to have. The mirror is the same in both; the wing-coverts are white or grey in both; the crown is white, or cream-coloured, or orange-brown, in both; but in the European the head and neck are described as reddish-chestnut, and in the American as yellowish-white. Now, in fact, American birds sometimes have the head and neck red, and European Birds sometimes have the green streak on the side of the head. In short, on comparing specimens from America, with others from India and Norway, I cannot perceive any essential difference. At the same time, not having traced our Widgeon through all its gradations, and being equally unacquainted with all those of the European and Asiatic Widgeon, I cannot _positively_ affirm that _Anas Americana_ is identical with _Anas Penelope_. A male preserved in spirits presents the following characters. [Illustration] The roof of the mouth is deeply concave, with a median prominent line, and numerous irregular small tubercles on the sides, with several larger ones at the fore part. Two large branches of the supra-maxillary nerve run in this ridge, as in other ducks. The tongue is 1 inch 5 twelfths long, with numerous straight, pointed papillæ at the base, a median longitudinal groove, and a thin broadly rounded point. The œsophagus, _a b c d_, is 10 inches long, narrow, dilating a little on the lower part of the neck, where its diameter is 1/2 inch. The proventriculus, _b c_, is 8 twelfths broad; its glands oblong, 2 twelfths in length, and occupying a belt 1 inch 4 twelfths in breadth. The gizzard, _e f g_, is extremely large, of a nearly regular elliptical form, placed obliquely, its length 1 inch 8 twelfths, its breadth 2-1/2 inches; its lateral muscles extremely large, the left, _e_, 1 inch 2 twelfths in thickness, the other, _f_, 1 inch and 1 twelfth; the inferior muscle, _g_, only 1 twelfth. In the œsophagus are contained slender leaves of grasses; in the gizzard some of these leaves and other vegetable matters, small seeds, and a great quantity of sand. The cuticular lining or epithelium is dense, slightly rugous, much thickened on the spaces opposite the middle of the lateral muscles. The duodenum, _g h i_, is 5-1/2 inches in its first curve, _g h_, and is then reflected for 7 inches, passes backwards under the kidneys and forms several convolutions. The intestine, _g h i j k l_, is 6 feet 2 inches long, 1/2 inch in diameter in its duodenal portion, gradually contracts to 4 twelfths at the distance of 18 inches from the pylorus, again enlarges to 5 twelfths, and near the rectum to 7 twelfths. The rectum is 4-1/2 inches long; the cœca 9 inches, their diameter for nearly 2 inches being 2 twelfths, after which they are