The Wigeon. '33 



The male bird has been seen on inland water in the summer, notably on the 

 Broads of Norfolk. In the early autumn I have rtiore than once in Lincolnshire 

 met with young broods and shot examples under circumstances which, practically 

 left no doubt of wild birds having been successfully reared not very far from the 

 immediate neighbourhood.* 



In north-east Lincolnshire there are two distinct arrivals of Wigeon — ^broods 

 which come very early in the season, perhaps moving from the more northern 

 parts of these islands — and the great body of foreign immigrants from the middle 

 of October to the middle of November. The earliest date for the former in my 

 note-book are August 26th and September 5th, 7th and 13th. 



On the coast of Merionethshire, Mr. Haigh says the Wigeon sometimes appears 

 in October in large numbers, which increase to the end of November, and leave 

 again in February and March, a few remaining into April and occasionally as late 

 as the middle of May. Owing to the absence of food on the hard sands they go 

 inland at night to feed, and many are killed by the flight-shooters on the saltings 

 and marshes. 



The Wigeon breeds abundantly in several districts in Scotland north of the 

 Forth. In Orkney regularly for many years past in Hoy. In Shetland, Mr. 

 Saxby used to receive eggs from Yell, Unst, and Hascosea. Mr. Grey never took 

 the nest in the Outer Hebrides, although he had no doubt a few pair nest there 

 regularly. Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown considers it a rapidly increasing and extending 

 species in many parts of North Scotland. South of the Forth several pair are 

 known to nest on a few obscure lochs in Selkirkshire ; and according to Mr. 

 George Bolam there is strong probability of Wigeon remaining to nest in localities 

 north and south of the Borders, (" Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist.," Oct., 96). In Ireland, 

 where it is known in great numbers in the winter, a few remain to nest on the 

 great loughs and inland waters. 



The breeding range of the Wigeon extends across the Arctic and Subarctic 

 regions of Europe and Asia. Mr. Seebohm took the eggs in the lower valley of 

 the Danube, which is probably the most southerly limit of its nesting quarters in 

 Europe. In Scandinavia it is one of the commonest of the northern Ducks, but 

 does not extend its range into the extreme north and the islands in the Arctic 

 Ocean. One was got on Waigats Island, in September, by Th. Von Heuglin. It 

 nests in Iceland and also in Fa^roe; is very common about Archangel and the 

 White Sea in summer. Mr. A. Trevor-Battye saw a pair in Kolguev in June. 

 Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown, (" Ibis," 76, p. 444), consider it the most 



* Since this was written, the Rev. Murray Mathew has called my attention to the fact of the Wigeon 

 having presumably nested for some years on Slapton Ley, in Devon. — See the Supplement " Birds of Devon," 

 pp. 20-22. 



Vol IV Y 



