182 THE WIGEON. 
Though we are quite ignorant of the manner and 
place in which the wigeon makes its nest, and of 
the number and colour of its eggs, still we are in 
possession of a clew to lead us to the fact, that it 
hatches its young long after its congeners the mal- 
lards have hatched theirs. The mallards return 
here, in full plumage, early in the month of Octo- 
ber; but the wigeons are observed to be in their 
mottled plumage as late as the end of November. 
Again, as the old male wigeon returns to these 
latitudes in mottled plumage, we may safely infer 
that he undergoes the same process of a double 
moulting as the mallard; on which, perhaps, a paper 
hereafter. . 
I offer to ornithologists, these few observations 
and speculations on the economy of the wigeon, to 
be approved of, or reproved, or improved, just as 
they may think fit. Every disquisition, be it ever 
so short, will help a little to put the science of orni- 
thology upon a somewhat better footing than that 
on which it stands at present. From reviews, which 
I have lately read with more than ordinary atten- 
tion; and from representations of birds, which I 
have lately examined very closely, I pronounce or- 
nithology to be at least halfa century behind the 
other sciences. I say nothing of the stuffing of birds 
for cabinets of natural history. Were I to touch 
upon the mode now in general use, I should prove 
it to be a total failure, devoid of every scientific 
principle; a mode that can never, by any chance, 
restore the true form and features of birds. 
But to return to the wigeon. I will just add, in 
