GARGANEY.— WIGEON. 349 



either this species or the Common Teal feeding on acorns, as 

 the name would lead one to suppose. Mr. Knox (O. R. 

 p. 244) thus states : — " Immature examples of the Garganey 

 are not unusual in the winter at Pagham, Shoreham, Rye, 

 and Hastings." Now, as the Garganey is a spring and 

 summer visitant, I fancy there is some mistake. In April 

 1866 ('Zoologist,' p. 266, s. s.), Mr. Jeffery has recorded 

 that a pair of these handsome little Ducks were killed near 

 Selsey, and a male, now in the Chichester Museum, in the 

 same month some years before ; and Mr. Monk notes, on 

 p. 2141, that on March 25th, 1870, an immature male 

 Garganey was shot in the marshes near Lewes, in company 

 with six others. 



WIGEON. 



Mareca jpenelope. 



The Wigeon, which from its note is also known as the 

 Whew, arrives in considerable numbers about the end of 

 September, which continually increase through the winter. 

 In February the males seem to select their partners ; after 

 this, they do not gather together in such large flocks, and 

 by the beginning of March they have mostly departed 

 for the breeding-season. The Wigeon lives on vegetable 

 matter, chiefly, according to Waterton, on the short grass 

 which is the favourite food of the domestic Goose ; it also 

 frequently attends the Pochard, when it is pulling up Zostera 

 marina, of which the Pochard eats only the root, and the 

 Wigeon the fronds, which are left floating on the surface of 

 the water. In a domestic state the Wigeon does well on 

 maize, and attends the diving Ducks, if several are diving 

 together, and picks up something, for I never could ascertain 



