100 THE BIRDS OF CUMBERLAND. 



wings brown ; wing coverts, back, and rump white ; 

 tail quills white at the base, the rest brownish- 

 black, fringed with pale buft. 



Genus MAR EGA. 



M. Penelope. Wigeon. 



The Wigeon is a common winter visitant, arriving 

 numerously during the latter part of October and 

 the first fortnight of November, and departing in 

 March and April. During the present spring, a 

 small party of Wigeon lingered into May on the 

 Ravenglass estuary, and Mr. A. Smith once shot 

 a bird, in the middle of July, which he thought had 

 not bred at all, but had passed the summer on the 

 Solway. September is the earliest month for the 

 regular arrival of a flight of Wigeon on our coast. 

 In 1873, Mr. F. D. Power heard a flight of Wigeon 

 passing over Gleator Moor, on the 14th of Sept. ; 

 in 1883, a brace were shot on Burgh marsh, on 

 Sept. 22nd, and others were obtained about the 

 same date ; in 1884, a big flock arrived on the 

 Solway in the middle of September. In 1885, in 

 company with Mr. Tremble, we observed six Wigeon 

 on Rockliffe marsh, on September 5th, the earliest 

 date in Mr. Tremble's experience, though he has 

 often shot Wigeon in September ; on Sept. 13th, 

 Mr. F. Ritson counted forty odd birds, as they rose 

 out of the sedge on Monkhill ; we observed them 

 in the same locality on the 18th, and obtained two 

 old drakes shot on Rocklifle marsh the same evening^. 

 Others were shot by the punt gunners during the 



