jhfl, not far from Allahabad, grass had been the chief food,
though mingled with this were a few fresh-water shells, insects,
and roots, and leaves of rushes and aquatic plants, and a little
grain. I have often seen them on land grazing like Geese, but
also often feeding in the shallows, with only their stern halves
visible, like Mallard or Gadwall. They feed more by day and
less by night than the Pin-tail, and do not so constantly change
their quarters at sunset as these latter do. I have not found
them as wary as the Pin-tail as a whole ; and, though Colonel
Hawker says that for punt-shooting they are like the fox for
bunting, and show the finest sport of anything in England,
I can only say that, out here, they are not difficult to work up
to if any wind be blowing. No doubt they have a keen scent,
and you must work them on and not off a wind.
Along the coast (and those killed there arc very poor eating
in my opinion) they feed, I found, on all kinds of shellfish,
shrimps and the like, as well as on vegetable matter (a
kind of green sea weed it seemed to me in one case) of various
descriptions.
Sometimes they are very reluctant to leave the broad in
which you find them, and drive backwards and forwards well,
affording very pretty shooting when numerous. They arc not
robust birds, and drop easily at distances at which, unless you
happened to catch him in his long thin neck, a Pin-tail would
laugh at you. At other times they are very wild, and go right
away at the first shot.
They are, on the whole, rather loquacious birds, and both,
when feeding and at rest, when walking, swimming, and flying,
often utter a shrill " whew," a sort of whistle, by which you may
know them at any distance ; it is not a clear full whistle like
the Curlew's, but a whistled cry, rather discordant when
heard by day, but not without its charms when uttered at night
by large numbers, mingled with the calls of many other species,
and mellowed by distance and the multitudinous voices of winds
and waters.
Very often they are well flavoured enough, and might then
rank high as tabic ducks, but their flesh has not unfrequcntly a
muddy flavour; and those that I have shot on the sea coast
have always had such a distinct " odour of brine from the
ocean" as to render them very unpalatable. At home in Norfolk
we used to consider Wigeons first-rate eating, but out here they
must rank as only moderately good on the average.
THERE IS no reason to suppose that this species ever breeds
within our limits. It breeds in the highlands of Scotland,*
* Mr. Brooks kindly sends me the following note of a nest of this species that
he took in the Highlands :—
" I once Look a nest of this Duck, with nine eggs, on one of the small islands in
Loch Maddie, which is in Sutherlandshire, an I about 20 miles f'omthe North Coast
THE WIGEON, 201
Iceland, Northern Europe, and Siberia, rarely if ever, I take it,
within the Arctic Circle or much south of the 55th degree
North Latitude. Dresser says :—" The eggs are deposited iate
in May or early in June, the locality selected for the purpose of
nidification being sometimes close to the water's edge, and at
others some distance from it ; for Mr. Collctt informs me that
he found a nest on the fells, not far from the town of
Lillehammcr, which was under a juniper bush, at least Soo
yards from the water. The nest is a mere depression or hole
scratched in the ground and well lined with down and a few
feathers, intermixed with a little moss or a few grass bents.
A nest, which I possess, consists of a little moss matted together
with down, the latter being of a dark sooty brown colour, the
centre of the down beinjj rather lighter or dark sooty grey ;
and a few feathers of the bird are interspersed here and there.
The eggs arc creamy white in colour and oval in shape, tapering
slightly towards the smaller end."
Mr. Wollcy says that " no other duck is so common as this
in Lapland. Wherever there is a still bay or recess in the
river, with water-plants and willows, there is sure to be a pair
or two of Wigeon ; and near the bank they make their nests.
In the lakes, too, they are frequently to be found. They arc
tamer than any of the other ducks, and often let a boat pass
quite near, whilst they are constantly swimming about just
before houses. The down of the nest is somewhat like that
of the Pin-tail, but looser; the same white centres, softened by
the transparent grey outside each little tuft; yet the filaments
are longer, and their white bars larger and more distinct. A
nest is an extremely pretty sight, even when separated from its
native bank, and all the accompaniments of flowers, roots,
moss, and lichen. The eggs seem to be usually from six to ten
in number. When fresh, they are mostly of a rich cream colour;
but some are even then quite white."
The eggs are smooth, have a faint gloss, and arc rather
elongated ovals, measuring from 2'i to 2 3 in length, by 1*5 to
1'6 in breadth.
THERE IS very little difference in the sizes of the sexes, and
though the males average larger, I got one female last year
considerably heavier than any male I ever met with.
Males (adults).—Length, 19-0 to 19-5 ; expanse, 3275 to 34'5 ;
wing, io'o to I0'6 ; tail from vent, 4'0 to 4-6 ; tarsus, 1-4 to 10" ;
bill from gape, 17 to f82 ; weight, 1 lb. 5 ozs. to I lb. 10 ozs.
of Scotland. The little island, which was rather flat, was overgrown with heather
from a foot to eighteen inches high, and at one end of the island was a chimp of
ratliei low birch trees 011 which a number of common Herons had their nests. Ill
walking thiough the heather one of the boatman who accompanied me put up a
Wigeon close by, which almost flew in my face. The nest was at once found among
the heather, and was the usual mossy one at the roots of the heather, and lined with
the down of the bud. The eggs were quite fresh, and of a line creamy white."
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