180 THE WIGEON, 



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to say something on certain parts of their economy, 

 which our ornithological writers seem never to have 

 noticed. 



The wigeon is a much more familiar bird than 

 either the pochard or the teal. While these con- 

 gregate on the water, beyond the reach of man, the 

 wigeon appears to have divested itself of the timidity 

 observable in all other species of wild fowl, and ap- 

 proaches very near to our habitations. A consider- 

 able time elapsed before I was enabled to account 

 satisfactorily for the wigeon's remaining here during 

 the night ; a circumstance directly at variance with 

 the habits of its congeners, which, to a bird, pass 

 the night away from the place where they have been 

 staying during the day. But, upon paying a much 

 closer attention to it than I had formerly been ac- 

 customed to do, I observed that it differed from them 

 all, both in the nature of its food, and in the time of 

 procuring it. The mallard, the pochard, and the teal 

 obtain nearly the whole of their nourishment during 

 the night. On the contrary, the wigeon procures its 

 food in the daytime, and that food is grass. He 

 who has an opportunity of watching the wigeon 

 when it is undisturbed, and allowed to follow the 

 bent of its own inclinations, will find that, while the 

 mallard, the pochard, and the teal are sporting on 

 the water, or reposing on the bank at their ease, it is 

 devouring with avidity that same kind of short grass, 

 on which the goose is known to feed. Hence, though 

 many flocks of wigeons accompany the other water- 

 fowl in their nocturnal wanderings, still numbers of 

 them pass the whole of the night here ; and this I 



