European Widgeon Recorded from Lower California
European Widgeon Recorded from Lower California
The San Diego Society of Natural History has come into possession of a mounted male, European Widgeon (Mareca penelope) taken on January 13, 1933, at Descanso, Lower California, Mexico, which is about 30 miles south of the international border.
It appears that Alfred Crosthwaite, who lives at a small rancheria at Descanso shot “a pair” of these birds in a slough close to the ocean. One he sold for food at Tijuana; the other, in the belief that it was a “cross,” he brought to show his friend W. Y. Wetzel, an employee of Muehleisen & Company, sporting goods house in San Diego. Wetzel had the bird mounted by Ted Huff, San Diego taxidermist, for Muehleisen's exhibit of game birds. Due to the generosity of all these persons, the specimen has now been donated to the San Diego Society of Natural History and will be placed on exhibition at the Society's museum in the case devoted to local ducks. It constitutes, I believe, a first record for Lower California.
Clinton G. Abbott
San Diego Society of Natural History, Balboa Park, San Diego, California, June 5, 1983
