EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 39 



and have been observed doing so in the shires of Koss and Suther- 

 land, in Cromarty, and in the Orkneys and Shetlands. 



The Wigeon is a very common Arctic species of Duck, confined 

 to the Old World during the breeding-season. South of lat. 60° 

 it is only found breeding under exceptional circumstances ; but I 

 have taken its eggs in the lower valley of the Danube, and nests 

 have been found in France, Germany, Denmark, Bohemia, and 

 in the Baikal Basin. The nests are well concealed, generally 

 close to the margin of a lake or a pond, and are placed in the long 

 grass and sedge, often under a willow bush. Like those of most 

 Ducks which breed in the Arctic Region, they are very deep, 

 well lined with dead grass and sedge, and, when the full clutch 

 is laid, contain a quantity of down with which the eggs are 

 covered when the female leaves the nest. The down of the 

 Wigeon may very easily be recognised by its sooty-brown colour, 

 and by the distinctness of the white tips — an important point in 

 discriminating the eggs from those of the White-eyed Pochard 

 and Gadwall, which are of about the same size and nearly the same 

 colour, though much less of a creamy-white, and more inclined to 

 dull huffish- white, whilst the down which surrounds them is 

 darker, greyer, and almost without pale tips. 



The eggs of the Wigeon vary in number from seven to ten, 

 in rare instances to twelve ; they are bumsh-white or cream 

 colour, and never show the slightest trace of olive. They vary in 

 length from 2"3 to 1*9 inch, and in breadth from 1*6 to 1*3 inch. 



THE AMERICAN WIGEON. 

 (A nas americana . ) * 



The American Wigeon belongs to the list of doubtful British 

 birds. There is reasonable ground to suppose that it has been 

 shot more than once in our islands, but it is impossible to prove 

 that the birds had not escaped from confinement. It breeds in 

 Alaska and in British America as far north as lat. 70°, and its eggs 

 have occasionally been taken in the extreme north of the United 

 States. It scarcely differs in its habits from its Old World ally, and 

 lays eggs of the same creamy- white colour, which vary in length 

 from 2'25 to 2'1 inches and in breadth from 155 to 1 45 inch. 

 * Mareca americana — Saunders, Manual, p. 427; Sharpe, Handb., II., p. 281. 



