HAUNTS OF WIGEON. 47 



nature, that for the moment their customary caution 

 is put aside, and food and rest alone thought of. 



Such chances are not often afforded the fowler, 

 and when they do occur should be made the 

 most of. 



Wigeon are not so partial to small lakes as are 

 Duck, and it is rare to take them in decoys, on 

 account of their suspicious nature, unless the pool 

 be not far from the sea. 



Wigeon arrive in straggling parties about the 

 loth October, increasing in numbers till the middle 

 of November, by which date there are as many in 

 most places as will be seen for the winter. They 

 leave between the middle of February and the end 

 of March. A good many may, however, be seen 

 on the inland lakes till April, for all fowl remain 

 later in the spring on the sheltered lakes and meres 

 than on the coast, since they are there less influenced 

 by gales, and appear loth to leave such good har- 

 bourage. 



In Ireland, Wigeon greatly predominate in the 

 fowler's total. Out of the fifteen hundred wildfowl 

 already alluded to as having been killed by me on 

 the west coast in the winter of 1 880-81, twelve 

 hundred were Wigeon. 



Capt. Kinsey Dover, who has kindly given me 

 notes of his three best years' shooting out of twenty, 

 with a single-handed punt and small swivel gun, 

 says : " In Mulroy and Sheephaven Bays, in the 

 north-west, in the season, 1 860-61, I killed six 

 hundred and seventy-one fowl, of which five hundred 

 and eighteen were Wigeon. In 1861-62, five hun- 

 dred and ninety-four, of which three hundred and 



