DUCKS 2115 



The last genus of the subfamily represented in the British Isles is 

 that which includes the common wigeon ( Mareca penelope) , the North- 

 American wigeon (M. americana) , and the Chilian wigeon {M. sibilatrix) of South 

 America. These birds have a bill considerably shorter than the head, and very like 

 that of the gad wall, but with the lamellae scarcely exposed, and slightly concave 

 above. The rather long and pointed wings have the first and second quills the long- 

 est, the tail is short and pointed, and the wing speculum is largely black, while 

 there is a white patch on the lesser wing coverts. In the legs, a small portion of 

 the tibia is bare, and the first toe has a small membranous lobe. The male wigeon, 

 which measures from eighteen to twenty inches in length, may be recognized by its 

 chestnut head and neck, minutely spotted with green (except on the forehead and 

 top, where it is whitish), by the black and white vermiculation of the back and 

 flanks, the white on the wing coverts, and by the wing speculum being formed by 

 one green band bordered by two equally wide ones of black. The female is a more 

 soberly-colored bird, lacking the bright head coloration of the male, and with a 

 grayish-brown speculum. In the late summer the plumage of the male, although 

 always the brighter, approximates to that of his partner. The slightly-larger 

 American wigeon, has the head and neck of the male whitish, slightly speckled with 

 black, and with a metallic-green patch on the side of the head, which may extend 

 some distance down the neck; while the female has a black wing speculum. In the 

 Chilian wigeon the speculum is velvety black in both sexes. The common wigeon 

 is a migratory species having a distribution very similar to that of the teal, breeding 

 occasionally in the northern parts of the British Islands, as well as in France, Ger- 

 many, and the Danube valley, but more generally in the belt lying between the 

 Arctic Circle and the 6oth parallel. At all times gregarious, these birds are even 

 social in the breeding season; and while in the British Islands principally frequent- 

 ing estuaries and the neighborhood of the coast, in India they are spread over all 

 the inland waters. Their habit of walking on land near the margin of water has 

 been already mentioned under the head of the teal, and it may be added that they 

 differ from those birds in the facility with which they dive when wounded. They 

 breed in well-watered districts where the ground is partly swampy and partly cov- 

 ered with low scrub; the nest being placed near the water beneath tussocks of grass, 

 or at some distance off under the shelter of a bush. May or June is the usual nest- 

 ing time, and the number of eggs in a clutch is usually from six to ten, although 

 occasionally more. In its partiality for grazing the wigeon resembles the geese. 



The brilliantly-colored and elegantly-marked plumage and the long 

 Summer Duck ... , **..< j- ,. i_ ^ 



M silky pendent crest of the males, serve at once to distinguish the sum- 



darin Duck mer or wood duck (sEx sponsa) of North America and the mandarin 

 duck (sx galerita] of China from all the other members of the family. 

 These birds are further characterized by the beak being much shorter than the head, 

 with its base elevated, and produced upw r ard and backward in an angle nearly to 

 each eye, while its tip is depressed and covered with an unusually large nail. The 

 inner secondaries differ from those of the genera just described, by being broad and 

 rounded, and the tail feathers are not pointed. The two species agree in the gen- 

 eral plan of their gorgeous coloration, but are distinguished by a difference in the 



