AMERICAN WIGEON. 461 



at Hornby Castle, where is one of the two surviving Yorkshire 

 Decoys, one hundred and one birds were taken between 

 the years 1856 and 1864 ; and it was from this place that, in 

 1860, the late John Hancock had sent to him a pair of hybrids 

 between the male Wigeon and female Mallard, and another 

 pair between the male Wigeon and female Call Duck. One 

 of the females laid eleven eggs and sat them, but produced 

 no young ; one of the male birds was alive in 1874 (see " Birds 

 of Northd. and Dm." p. 153). A female, assuming drake's 

 plumage, was obtained at the Teesmouth in the year 1865 

 (Nat. 1865, p. 38). 



The local vernacular names are Whewer or Whew Duck ; 

 Whew is a common name amongst coast fowlers at the Tees- 

 mouth ; the drake is called Pendle Whew, and the female 

 Grass Whew. 



AMERICAN WIGEON. 



Mareca americana (J. F. Gmelin). 



Accidental visitant from North America, of extremely rare occur- 

 ence. 



Concerning this American representative of our Wigeon, 

 Sir Ralph Payne- Gallwey of Thirkleby Park, Thirsk, writing 

 to the Field, (gth March 1895), states : 



" On 26th February, Mr. R. Lee, taxidermist, of Thirsk, 

 obtained in Leeds an adult female American Wigeon. It 

 was hanging up for sale with several common Wigeon in the 

 shop of Mr. Murray, gamedealer, Leeds, who had just received 

 it with other birds from the coast. I saw this bird when quite 

 fresh, and it had pellets of shot in it with which it had been 

 lately killed. It proved, on dissection, to be a female, though 

 it has the green eyestripe and speckled neck and forehead of 

 the male, but the crown is dark, and there is a good deal of 

 chestnut on the flanks, and a little on the breast. The only 

 British killed specimen of this bird, so far as I know, is one 



