{Authors are respo)mble for nomenclature used.) /v> \i 



V 



The Scottish Naturalist 



Nos. 99 AND loo.] 1920 [March- April. 



THE WIGEON AS A SCOTTISH BREEDING 



SPECIES. 



By Evelyn V. Baxter and Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul. 



The spread of the Wigeon {Mareca penelope) through 

 Scotland differs totally from that of the Gadwall. The 

 colonisation began in the extreme north of the mainland, 

 and the species established itself and progressed with great 

 rapidity, the chief line of advance being along the east of 

 the main watershed. 



This is a much more arctic breeding Duck than the 

 Gadwall ; it breeds up to about 70 N., nesting in Iceland, 

 Kolguev, and Vaigach Island, but its principal breeding 

 grounds lie in northern Scandinavia, Finland, perhaps most 

 numerously in the northern and central districts, and in 

 northern Russia. South of this it breeds sparingly in 

 Holland, Germany, central Russia, and is said to nest in 

 central Austria, on the islands in the Danube, and in 

 Hungary on the Neusiedler See ; it also breeds throughout 

 northern Asia. Its wintering grounds range from southern 

 Scandinavia and Denmark to " the whole of southern Europe 

 and North Africa, as far south as Abyssinia ; also southern 

 Asia to the Sunda Islands ; while some cross the Bering 

 Sea to the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and visit the coast of 

 California. Stragglers reach Greenland, the Atlantic coast 

 of North America, the Azores, and Madeira, and have been 

 99 AND 100 E 



