'IHE WIGEON. 279 



Winton writes to me, *' both males and females assume a very 

 distinct summer dress of reddish-brown, though the female is 

 not quite so rufous. In the male all traces of the beautiful 

 breeding-dress disappear." Sir Savile Crossley, finding that 

 I was interested in the summer plumage of Ducks, very kindly 

 had a pair of Wigeon caught for me and sent up to London 

 alive. On the day of their arrival (August 24th) the male 

 had moulted his wings and assumed the full plumage, 

 speculum and all, but the female was still helpless, the quills 

 being in full moult. The male, however, still retained much 

 of his post-nuptial dress, and the feathers of the back were 

 blackish, with rufous margins and bars ; the head and neck 

 were rufous, spotted with black, but distinctly glossed with 

 green ; the chest and sides of the body were dark chestnut, 

 mottled with sub-terminal bars of black. 



The female was darker than the male, but the feathers were 

 also blackish, with rufous bars and margins, and the head was 

 especially dark, almost black, but with a very distinct green 

 gloss ; the wing-markings, however, were very different from 

 those of the male, and resembled, as far as the feathers were 

 developed, those of the full-plumaged hen-birJ. 



Characters. — The Wigeon is distinguished by the white patch 

 on the wing, formed by the median and greater coverts, the 

 grey bill tipped with black, and the green speculum. 



Hybrids. — Crosses have been known to take place between 

 the Wigeon and Mallard, Teal, and Pin-tail. The latter are 

 very rare, but Sir Edward Grey possesses a brood of the latter 

 hybrids hatched on his estate in Northumberland. 



Eange in Great Britain. — Occurs chiefly in England during 

 autumn and spring migration, sometimes in immense numbers. 

 It has not been known to nest anywhere in England, but in 

 the north of Scodand, in Sutherland, Ross, Cromarty, and 

 Caithness it breeds regularly. Mr. Ussher writes with regard 

 to the Wigeon in Ireland : — " Lord Caledon states that he 

 has seen the old birds in summer, at Caledon, Co. Tyrone. A 

 pair of Wigeon were seen in June, 1893, on Lough Allen in 

 Leitrim." The mere appearance of birds during the summer 

 does not prove that they bred in the neighbourhood. This 

 autumn a specimen was sent to the British Museum as a 



