Anseres 155 



white line descends from each eye to the neck, the 

 wing-coverts are bluish, and the wing-bar green edged 

 with white. Even the brown is varied in the male 

 by delicate lines of white, and the belly is whiter still. 

 The note is rattling and is thought by country-folk to 

 resemble the sound made by a cricket ; the food is much 

 as usual in ducks, with a rather greater proportion of 

 fishes ; the nest is sometimes placed a httle nearer the 

 water than that of the Common Teal, while the eggs 

 are of a rich cream-colour, with no green tint, and 

 resemble those of the Gadwall, though smaller. 



The Wigeon (Mareca penelope) is a bird of delicate 

 rather than brilliant coloration ; the male is pen- 

 cilled with grey and white on the back and flanks, 

 having a chestnut head with light buff crown, white 

 shoulders — as in the brown female — and a green wing- 

 patch. It is probably the favourite duck of sportsmen, 

 for it arrives in huge numbers towards the end of 

 August and, especially on our mud flats, forms a large 

 part of the bag of a punt-gunner. Though keeping to 

 the sea at this time of year, it breeds over a considerable 

 area in north Scotland as well as on the Border moss- 

 lands, and even southwards to Wales, nesting in the 

 heather and laying about seven or eight light cream- 

 coloured eggs. The cry is so well represented by the 

 syllable "whew" that this word is used as the name 

 of the bird by fishermen ; the food consists mainly, 

 it appears, of herbage, and certainly the winter flocks, 

 which begin to feed towards dusk, live chiefly on 

 grass-wrack (Zostera) and other aquatic vegetation. 

 The foreign range extends from north of the Arctic 

 Circle in Europe and Asia to about the latitude of 

 Holland, north Germany, and Mongolia; in winter 



