WIGEON. 189 



The wigeon is strictly vegetarian in diet, and where 

 food is abundant is not so regular in leaving its daily 

 resting-place as some other species ; nor is it so entirely 

 a nocturnal feeder. Prior to the year 1868, Mr. Blofeld 

 states, in his notes before quoted, that this species was 

 not found in considerable numbers on Hoveton broad, 

 but in that year the " American weed " (Anacharis alsi- 

 nastrum) made its appearance at Hoveton, and proved 

 very attractive to the wigeons, which came in large 

 numbers to feed upon it, and were in excellent condition. 

 The Ranworth decoy was at that time worked, and the 

 decoyman has since told me that he found it impossible 

 to entice the wigeons, they were so well fed and lazy. 

 The same influx of these birds occurred again at Hoveton 

 in 1869, through the entire autumn and winter, when 

 the weed so filled the broad that even a small boat could 

 hardly be " quanted " round it. In the following sum- 

 mer the water became so stagnant that the fish died ; 

 after this the weed rotted and vanished entirely, leaving 

 the broad perfectly clear of weeds of all kinds. This 

 weed, so attractive to wigeons and swans, completely 

 banished the diving birds, which could not penetrate 

 the dense mass of vegetation. 



Mr. J. H. Gurney, in a letter to Mr. Stevenson, 

 expresses an opinion that the wigeon, on an average, 

 does not regain its full dress until later in the year than 

 any of our common ducks, and states that on the 21st 

 !N"ovember, 1867, he saw, in Leadenhall market, several 

 of these birds, all males, which still retamed in great 

 part (many almost entirely) the duck's dress which they 

 assume in summer. This late assumption of the *^ full 



with wild ducks, pintails, and sliovelers; and, while the last 

 three bred pretty freely, he informs me the first hardly showed 

 any desire of propagation. The pond in which they were kept 

 was apparently better suited to wigeons than to the other species, 

 as there was plenty of grass about it, whereon they were con- 

 tinually feeding, but they never showed any inclination to nest. 

 Mr. Cecil Smith, in a paper on " The breeding of certain Avater- 

 fowl in confinement" ("Zoologist," 1881, p. 448), states that 

 both his father and himself have had wigeons on a pond ever since 

 he could remember, but they never bred till 1872 ; since which 

 time they have done so regularly* 



