WIGEON 23 



sunmbly imitated by the Hindustani Peasan and the Nepalese 

 Gheywi; the female growls, but is far less noisy than her mate. 

 When in flocks, the frequent " whewing " of the drakes is very 

 noticeable, as also the way in which they apparently hump their 

 backs, by raising the ends of the wings and depressing the tail, 

 this being their display; in the ordinary way wigeon float rather 

 high, and are recognizable by their small heads and bills and 

 pointed tails. They fly lightly and fast, wheeling and turning 

 with ease. 



They are common winter visitors to India, Burma and 

 Manipur, but do not penetrate further south than Mysore, and 

 in many localities are rather uncertain in their appearance, not 

 turning up at all in some years ; in Bengal, from what I observed 

 in the Calcutta Market, they are regular enough in their appear- 

 ance. Although to a certain extent omnivorous, as all ducks are 

 more or less, they are specially vegetable feeders, and have a 

 particular fondness for grass, so that they feed on land more than 

 most ducks, and especially affect pieces of water with meadow- 

 like turfy margins. They frequent salt water to some extent, but 

 are not so much sea-coast birds as at home, where they are among 

 the chief quarry of the sea-coast gunner, feeding on the sea-grass 

 so common on the British coasts. Their table qualities in India 

 are rather uncertain, and they do not rank so high in this respect 

 as at home. 



It is noticeable that they are inclined to avoid a district in 

 abnormally wet years, which at first seems a curious thing for 

 ducks to do ; but the effect of too much water is to cut off their 

 food supply to a great extent, the shore grass being drowned, 

 while the water-weeds are too deeply submerged for surface- 

 feeders as they are ; though they can dive well if pressed, they 

 do not seek for food in this way as a rule at any rate, though a 

 captive bird in France has been known to do so during a flood. 



The wigeon is a high northern bird in its breeding range, 

 but is more of a western than an eastern species at all times, 

 and now and then strays to North America, where, however, 

 the ordinary wigeon is the distinct M. americana. Patari and 

 Pliaria are Hindustani names as well as that given, and in 

 Sind the bird is called Paroio. 



