188 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



immature plumage, and were, doubtless, either weakly, 

 or liad suffered jErom wounds, and thus were unable to 

 follow their stronger relations." Mr. A. Hamond in- 

 formed Mr. Stevenson that in 1877 several wigeons 

 remained all the summer on the lake at Narford. On 

 the 25th April, 1875, Mr. Frank Norgate saw with a 

 telescope several wigeons and one pochard on the 

 lake at Fritton decoy. William Hewitt, Mr. Blofeld's 

 marshman, told him that he had seen a wigeon on 

 Hoveton Broad on the 3rd May, 1860, and on the next 

 day Mr. Blofeld himself saw a bird in company with 

 three mallards which he had no doabt was a male 

 wigeon. Mr. Frank Norgate saw a male wigeon on the 

 '' Big water," at Heydon, which flew up within a few 

 yards of him, on the 24th June, 1875 ; and, on the 4th 

 July, the same gentleman saw " a pair of wigeons withm 

 a few yards " of him, on a pond at Cawston ; finally, on 

 the same water, on September 8th, 1880, he saw "four 

 ducks, apparently wigeons, at a distance of about sixty 

 yards." In 1868, the decoyman, Boyce, at one of the 

 Fritton decoys, told Mr. Norgate that " wigeons some- 

 times drop a few white eggs on the decoy banks before 

 they leave for their summer quarters." A similar state- 

 ment was made to Mr. Stevenson from East Norfolk, by 

 Mr. F. Frere, who says that at Potter Heigham wigeons 

 have been known to drop their eggs before going north 

 in spring, a habit which Montagu attributes to them 

 also in confinement. In the " Zoologist " for 1847, 

 p. 1785, is a note by Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, to the 

 effect that " about the 1 7th May a nest containing four 

 eggs, which, from their appearance and the description 

 which was given of the old birds, are probably those of 

 the wigeon, was taken on the edge of the river Bure." 

 Lord Walsingham informs me that a wild male wigeon 

 paired with a pinioned female, and remained to breed on 

 Stanford water.* 



* It is wortliy of remark that the wigeon is, of all fresh-water 

 ducks commonly kept in confinement, the one which most 

 seldom breeds, and yet it very readily becomes tame. This fact 

 is of importance, as showing how little we know of the causes 

 which affect the domestication of species. At Elveden, Professor 

 Newton and his brother had wigeons for many years, together 



