38 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



The white breast is spotted with black, the abdomen is white. 

 The bill is blackish brown, the legs dusky, and the irides brown. 

 In eclipse a plumage not unlike that of the duck is assumed, 

 but the back is darker and the under parts more spotted. In 

 the brown duck, mottled and barred with buff, the white breast 

 and under parts are spotted after her spring moult. Immature 

 birds are darker on the upper parts and their markings are 

 less defined than those of the adult duck. Length, 14-15 ins. 

 Wing, 7*25 ins. Tarsus, i in. 



The American Green-winged Teal, Q. c. caroline?isis 

 (Gmelin), the transatlantic representative of our species, has 

 been reported at least three times in our islands, and is not 

 unlikely to occur occasionally. The drake lacks the distinctive 

 white side streak, but has a whitish crescentic band between 

 the breast and flanks, and the buff frame of the facial ornament 

 is incomplete. In size and habits it agrees with our bird ; the 

 female cannot be distinguished with certainty. 



Wigeon. Mareca pe?ielope (Linn.). 



As a regular nesting species the Wigeon occurs in northern 

 Scotland, but, though odd pairs have nested in England and 

 Wales, it is in most parts of the British Isles a common winter 

 visitor. Abroad it nests in northern Europe and Asia, and in 

 winter visits Africa, southern Asia, and occasionally North 

 America. 



On the water an old drake Wigeon (Plate 19) is a con- 

 spicuous bird, his large white wing-patch never concealed ; a 

 yellowish-buff or creamy crest forms a wide parting on his 

 warm burnt-sienna head, and his back and flanks, divided by 

 the white line, are finely pencilled with black on grey. His 

 pinkish breast shades somewhat abruptly into white, and as he 

 swims with pointed tail a little elevated, the white contrasts 

 noticeably with the velvet-black of the under coverts. The 

 more sombre duck shows but little white on the wing when 



