221 



AMEEICAX TVIGEOX. 



Anas Americana, .... \Tilsox. 



Mareea Americana, .... Stephens. 



Anas — A Duck. Americana — American. 



The first notice of the occurrence of this Duck in England, was contained in the 

 "Naturalist," (old series,) Tolume iii. It is there stated by Mr. E. Blyth. that Mr. 

 Bartlett had procured a male in the London market, in the winter of 1837-38. It was 

 among a lot of the Common Wigeon, and he picked it out, thinking it a variety of the 

 common species ; there was a female among the same lot, which, however, he unfortunately 

 did not secure, looking upon it merely as a slight variety. Mr. Thompson satisfied 

 himself that a male specimen had been shot on Strangford Lough, by a wildfowl shooter. 

 He thus records the fact: — "Henry Bell, an intelligent man of middle age. who, since 

 he could carry a gun, has been a Wigeon shooter in Belfast Bay, visited Strangford 

 Lough 'professionally' towards the end of February, 1844, with his punt and swivel gun. 

 Hearing, on a dark night, the call of "Wigeon, he fired towards the place whence the sound 

 proceeded, and picked up a single bird, which differed in plumage from any he had ever 

 seen. Its form at once marked this bird to his eye as a "Wigeon of some kind, but in a 

 state of plumage unlike that of the common species of either sex at any age ; of this he was 

 a good judge, from many hundreds having passed through his hands, and from his being 

 very observant of the species of birds, and the changes of plumage which they undergo. 

 He described it as a Wigeon in the plumage of a Teal. The large markings on the lower 

 part of the sides of the neck and on the breast, instead of being roundish as in the Teal, 

 were somewhat of a semicirctdar form, and varied in size, from 'one half to nearly the 

 whole size of a man's finger nail.' On the top of the head it was whitish, like the old male 

 Wigeon, but of a purer colour; and, like it, had the white marking on the wing; both 

 characters denoting an old male bird of its species. On the figures of the American 

 Wigeon in the works of Wilson (Jardine's Edition,) and Yarrell being shown to the 

 shooter, he felt confident that his bird was of the same species; the former representing 

 its plumage the better of the two, and the latter its form, as the neck was thicker than 

 that of the Common Wigeon. 



