296 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Scotland. Incubation. — By female alone. Period 22-23 days 

 (Heinroth) ; 24-25 (Gladstone). Single brooded. 



Food. — Probably almost entirely vegetable. Grasses of various 

 species, including Glyceria fluitans ; also Equisetum, Polygonum, 

 Potamogeton, Ranunculus flammula and repens, seeds of Carex. On 

 coast in winter Zoster a marina is favourite food. Blackberries and 

 grain have also been recorded. 



Distribution. — British Isles. — Resident, passage -migrant and 

 winter -visitor (mid-Aug.-end Nov. to early March-end May). 

 Breeds regularly Sutherland, Caithness, Ross, Cromarty, Inverness, 

 Perth and Kincardine ; and in Argyll, Kinross and Midlothian and 

 borders of Roxburgh and Selkirk, at all events in recent years ; has 

 nested Shetlands, Orkneys, Kircudbright., Coll (cf. Scot. Nat., 1920, 

 pp. 33-42). Has also bred, but probably not truly wild birds, 

 Yorks. (1897 and 1901), Lines. (1898), Cumberland (1903 and 1908), 

 Merioneth. (1898), and Norfolk (1919). ' Some evidence, but no 

 proof, of breeding occasionally other parts. Common winter -visitor 

 on all coasts and occasionally inland waters. In Shetlands, chiefly 

 autumn and spring migrant, few winter. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Palsearctic region generally, breeding in 

 northern parts, Iceland, Faeroes, Scandinavia, north Russia and 

 north Asia to Kamtschatka, wintering in more southern latitudes 

 as far as north Africa, Persia, India, Burmah, Sunda Islands, and 

 China ; irregular visitor to North America from Alaska and Green- 

 land to Florida and California. Casual Greenland, Spitsbergen 

 (once), Madeira, Canaries, Azores, Pribilof and Marshall Isles. 



ANAS AMERICANA. 



307. Anas americana Gm.— THE AMERICAN WIGEON. 



Anas americana Gmelin, Syst. Nat., 1, ii, p. 526 (1789— N. America]* 

 Mareca americana (Gmelin), Yarrell, iv, p. 403 ; Saunders, p. 439. 



Description (Plate 6). — Adult male. Winter and summer. — Re- 

 sembling A. penelope but a patch of metallic -green (in some lights 

 reddish-bronze) on side of head, surrounding eye and extending to 

 nape, feathers with buff bars and tips, bars in some more or less 

 concealed except where bordering nape (buff tips are more or less 

 lost by abrasion) ; nape buff, feathers barred black ; mantle and 

 scapulars as in A. penelope but vermiculated pink-vinaceous and 

 dark mouse -grey ; back and rump deep mouse -grey with much 

 finer vermiculations than in A. penelope ; lores, cheeks, sides of 

 neck, chin and throat light buff heavily spotted and streaked 

 black-brown ; sides of body and flanks pink-vinaceous more or less 

 vermiculated dark mouse-grey ; axillaries and median under wing- 

 coverts white, coverts at edge and bend of wing pale dusky-brown 

 freckled white ; remaining under-parts as in A. penelope ; tail as 

 in A . penelope but central pair often more acutely tapering ; wing 

 as in A. penelope but speculum with less green and larger amount 



