AMERICAN WIGEON. 513 



ANAS AMERICANA. 

 AMERICAN WIGEON. 



(PLATE 63.) 



Anas americana, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 526 (1788) ; et auctorum plurimoruin 



Jl'i/snH, Audition, (Baird, Brewer, $ Ridyicay), &c. 

 Mareca americana (Gmel.), Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii. pt. ii. p. 135 (1824). 



The American Wigeon belongs to the list of doubtful British birds : 

 there is reasonable ground to suppose that it has been shot more than once 

 in our islands, but it is impossible to prove that the birds had not escaped 

 from confinement. The undoubted occurrence of American Sandpipers on 

 our shores makes the occurrence of American Ducks, which are so much 

 more at home on the water, more than probable; and as the American 

 Wigeou is not one of the species usually introduced into an English park, 

 we may give it the benefit of the doubt, and regard it as a rare accidental 

 visitor. 



During the winter of 1837-38 an adult male American Wigeon was 

 bought in the flesh in Leadenhall Market by Mr. Bartlett, the present 

 Superintendent of the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park (Yarr. Hist. 

 Brit. B. iii. p. 293). This example may possibly have been sent over from 

 Holland; it is now in Mr. J. H. Guruey's collection. 



The second reputed occurrence of this bird in our islands is recorded 

 (Edward, ' Zoologist/ I860, p. 6970) as a male shot on the Burn of Boyudie, 

 in Banffshire, in January 1841. 



In 1844, towards the end of February, a third supposed example, said 

 to have been an adult male, was shot on Strangford Lough, near Belfast; 

 and, although the specimen was not preserved, the description given of it 

 by the professional sportsman who shot it appears to have convinced a 

 competent authority not only of the correctness of the identification of the 

 example in question, but of the fact that immature birds of the same 

 species had previously been killed in Belfast Bay (Thompson, < Birds of 

 Ireland/ iii. p. 112). 



A fourth record of a female shot on the Essex coast in January 1864 

 (Carter, ' Zoologist/ 1864, p. 8962) requires the identification of some 

 competent authority before it can be accepted. 



A fifth record is still more unsatisfactory, apparently resting only on 

 hearsay evidence, alleging that a specimen was shot/ about the 20th of 



