182 



THE WIGEON. 



Though we are quite ignorant of the manner and 

 place in which the wigeon makes its nest, and of 

 the number and colour of its eggs, still we are in 

 possession of a clew to lead us to the fact, that ife 

 hatches its young long after its congeners the mal- 

 lards have hatched theirs. The mallards return 

 hither, in full plumage,, early in the month of Octo- 

 ber ; but the wigeons are observed to be in their 

 mottled plumage as late as the end of November- 

 Again as the old male wigeon returns to these 

 latitudes in mottled jolumage, we may safely infer 

 that he undergoes the same process of a double 

 moulting as the mallard ; on which, perhaps, a paper 

 hereafter. 



I offer to ornithologists these few observations 

 and speculations on the economy of the wigeon, to 

 be approved of, or reproved, or improved, just as 

 they may think fit. Every disquisition, be it ever 

 so short, will help a little to put the science of orni- 

 thology upon a somewhat better footing than that 

 on which it stands at present. From reviews, which 

 I have lately read with more than ordinary atten- 

 tion ; and from representations of birds, which I 

 have lately examined very closely ; I pronounce or- 

 nithology to be at least half a century behind the 

 other sciences. I say nothing of t^he stuffing of birds 

 for cabinets of natural history. Were I to touch 

 upon the mode now in general use, I should prove 

 it to be a total failure, devoid of every scientific 

 principle ; a mode that can never, by any chance, 

 restore the true form and features of birds. 



But to return to the wigeon. I will just add, in 



