44° AMERICAN WIGEON. 



Common Wigeon at a Leeds game-stall, and its portrait appears in 

 the late Lord Lilford's ' Coloured Figures of British Birds.' 



In J'rance, according to MM. Marmottan and Vian, a female, 

 now in the collection of the former, was taken at Le Crotoy, Somme, 

 on April 13th 1875 ; and Mr. O. H. Howarth has informed me 

 of a specimen in a collection at St. Michael, Azores. Dr. L. 

 Stejneger has stated that a very lean and moulting female was found 

 dead on Bering Island on May ist 1883. 



Li North America this Wigeon is found in summer from Alaska 

 eastward throughout the Fur-countries to Hudson Bay ; and on 

 migration it occurs over the greater part of that continent, being 

 numerous on the Chesapeake, where, like the Canvas-back, it feeds 

 on the Vallisneria. Audubon says that it is abundant during winter 

 at New Orleans, where it is much esteemed on account of the juici- 

 ness of its flesh, and is best known by the name of "Zinzin." In 

 the West and in most parts of the Eastern and Middle States 

 it is called "the Bald Pate." It frequents the rice-fields of the 

 South, wanders to the Bermudas, and is an annual winter-visitor to 

 Mexico, the West India Islands and Central America. 



The nest of this species is stated by Kennicott to be always on 

 high dry ground, among trees or bushes, at a considerable distance 

 from water ; it is a comparatively small depression among the dead 

 leaves, lined with down, and contains from 7-10 ivory-white eggs, 

 measuring 2"i by i -5 in. The note is a soft, gentle whistle. 



The adult male has the forehead and crown dull white ; a broad 

 green streak passing backward from the eye ; cheeks and neck 

 whitish, freckled with black ; mantle brownish-grey vermiculated 

 with black ; lesser wing-coverts white, and the greater ones tipped 

 with black ; on the secondaries a green patch ; tail greyish-brown ; 

 upper breast to flanks mottled reddish-brown ; belly and vent 

 white ; bill black at the tip, the rest greyish-blue ; legs and feet 

 bluish. In younger males the plumage is duller, and the soft parts 

 are darker in colour. Length 19 in. ; wing 10 "5 in. The female 

 has the head and neck yellowish-white speckled with black (decidedly 

 whiter than in our Vvlgeon), very little rufous on the breast, 

 and a dark brown back. The young are much like the females in 

 the first season, but in the drakes the wing-pattern is better defined 

 and the colours are more pronounced. 



