ON THE BREEDING OF THE WIGEON ON THE BORDERS 219 



ON THE BREEDING OF THE WIGEON (MARECA 

 PENELOPE] ON THE BORDERS. 



By GEORGE BOLAM, F.Z.S. 



WITH reference to the notes of Mr. William Evans (" Annals," 

 1893, p. 115) and Mr. Peter Adair (ibid. 1895, p. 231), it 

 may perhaps be worth while to put upon record, that for 

 some years past I have occasionally met with this Duck 

 upon some of our Border loughs, late in the spring, and 

 when it certainly ought to have been breeding ; and though 

 I have no direct evidence to offer to show that it really has 

 done so, I strongly suspect that it does, sometimes at any 

 rate, remain to breed with us. 



Following the example of others, and suppressing the 

 exact localities, I may say that upon the I4th of last month, 

 upon a Northumbrian lake not more than ten miles south of 

 the Border, I saw a female Wigeon, which appeared quite 

 at home, amongst the Mallards and other Ducks which were 

 breeding there ; and my brother was informed by the keeper 

 at the place a few days afterwards that there were a pair of 

 Wigeons upon the water, and that they, or another pair, had 

 remained there throughout the previous summer, though he 

 could not speak more definitely as to whether or not they 

 had bred. At the date of my visit (i4th May) some of the 

 Mallards had already hatched out, while Shovellers were 

 sitting, and the Wigeon was not at all shy and looked quite 

 as much like a breeding bird as any of the other Ducks. 



On looking back in my journal for a year or two I find 

 that at Bolam Lake, in Northumberland, on loth April 1892, 

 I found several Wigeons amongst the other fowl, the males 

 whistling loudly ; whilst on 3Oth March in the following 

 year two pairs of Wigeons were seen at another lake 

 amongst the Northumbrian hills, the males of which were 

 chasing the females about, with much whistling, etc., and 

 showing evident signs that the honeymoon had begun. 



In another locality quite close to the Border, but upon 

 the Scotch side, I have more than once seen Wigeons in the 

 late spring, and on 5th May 1893 picked up an egg which 

 had been casually dropped amongst the heather, and which 



