208 THE SHELDUCK AND SURFACE-FEEDING DUCKS 



heavily spotted with grey on a buff ground, the under tail-coverts are dull white 

 heavily spotted with dark grey. The coloration of the female resembles that of the 

 female mallard, differing mainly therefrom in having the feathers at the base of 

 the hind-neck marked by very broad transverse bars and loops of buff, and the 

 sub-marginal and marginal bands of the long inner secondaries rufous instead of 

 buff ; and finally, the speculum is dusky grey, bounded in front by a white bar. 

 The juvenile dress differs from the adult female in having the back feathers dusky, 

 margined with a narrow edging of dull grey, interspersed with which are a few, 

 sparsely distributed, indistinct transverse bars of buff. The downy nestling is 

 distinguished by the absence of a basal streak, the almost uniform brown colour 

 of the upper parts showing only a faint buff bar along the wing, and the rufous 

 colour of the cheeks and throat, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. The wigeon breeds in considerable numbers in the north 

 of Scotland, especially Sutherland, and less commonly in Ross, Caithness, and 

 Cromarty. Of late years it has extended its range southward, and has bred in 

 Argyll, Perth, the Forth area (Kincardine), as well as Roxburgh, Selkirk, and 

 Kirkcudbright. It has also nested on Coll, the Orkneys and Shetlands. In 

 England apparently wild birds have bred at one locality in Cumberland, and nests 

 have been found in Yorkshire. Apparently it has also nested once in Merioneth. 

 These latter records may be due to the breeding of young birds hatched in captivity. 

 Although suspected of having bred in Ireland, proof is still wanting. Outside the 

 British Isles it has probably bred in the Faeroes, and nests commonly in Iceland : 

 is abundant in Norway and Sweden as well as in Finland, while in Russia it ranges 

 to Lapland, the White Sea, and the southern part of the tundra which borders on 

 the Arctic Ocean. It has bred on Waigatz and extends in South-east Russia to 

 Astrakhan and Transcaucasia, as well as to the Crimea, but is absent from the 

 south-west. It also breeds in very small numbers in East Prussia, and possibly 

 a few pairs may nest in other parts of North Germany, in Denmark, and in Holland. 

 In Asia it ranges north to 71 on the Boganida and 69 on the Kolyma, south to 

 Ussuria, the Altai, and near Tomsk. It is also found on the Aleutian Isles and 

 in Alaska. In winter it migrates south to Madeira, North Africa, and south-east 

 to the Egyptian Sudan and Abyssinia, while Asiatic birds reach Persia, India 

 (except in the south), Burma, China, and Japan, to Borneo, the Sunda and 

 Marschall Islands : in America to California on the west, and the Carolinas and 

 Virginia on the east : casual in Greenland. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A considerable number are resident in or summer visitors 



