BIRDS 281 



WIGEON. 



Mareca penelope (L.). 



Wigeon constitute a large proportion of the wild-fowl which 

 visit Lakeland. Consequently, we find many entries of these 

 birds being purchased for the table of Lord William Howard, 

 though both Teal and Mallard were more often procured. 

 Sometimes these birds are entered as 'wigeons' and 'widgeons,' 

 sometimes as ' wiggen.' At the present day Wigeon are con- 

 stantly called 'lough ducks ' and 'loughs ' in North Cumberland. 

 That this is an old name appears from such entries as ' one 

 lough,' — ' 6 lough mallerds,' ' 4 lough foole, xvj d.' They 

 frequent our loughs and lakes inland during the winter time, 

 especially such sheets of fresh water as Thrustonfield and Monkhill 

 Loughs, from which a short flight carries them to their favourite 

 salt marshes, or even to the more retired mosses of the Scottish 

 Solway. But they are best known as winter visitants to our 

 sea-coast, occurring most plentifully in severe weather in More- 

 cambe Bay and on the estuary of the Duddon. Some large 

 flocks of Wigeon always winter upon the estuary of the Irt, 

 Mite, and Esk at Muncaster, where on various occasions I have 

 seen them flighting from the quieter portions of those rivers 

 down to the sea bar, where they are unapproachable. Their 

 stay in Lakeland extends chiefly from October until April. By 

 far the largest number are shot when on passage in October 

 and November, and again in February. They are most 

 numerous in the month of March, after the close-time has 

 arrived. Stragglers have been shot in August, and we usually 

 observe a few early in September. The old drakes arrive first, 

 in eclipse plumage, followed by larger contingents of young 

 birds. In November old males again arrive numerously. It is 

 charming to watch the Wigeon at Monkhill Lough on a fine 

 spring morning, when the larks are singing in the fields, and 

 the male Wigeon paddles around the edge of the sedge beds 

 in close attendance upon the female, whose affections are still 

 sought for by the rejected suitor, which hangs about the skirts 

 of the paired couple. But though some of the old birds pair off 

 in February, the late frosts induce the greater number to delay 



