WIGEON. 543 



with two or three slender bars of ferruginous brown ; scapulars dusky 

 black with ferruginous margins ; breast plain vinaceous brown ; the 

 speculum of the wing is not green as in the male, but wholly black, 

 except the tips, which are white ; two of the tertials are margined with 

 white on the outer web ; those next the body with rufous margins ; 

 many of the smaller coverts, which are brown, are margined with 

 white ; the tail consists of fourteen feathers ; legs like those of the 

 male. 



* The labyrinth at the bottom of the trachea of the male, very much 

 resembles that of the pintail, being bony and globular ; but differs in 

 some respects, when examined together, in its attachment to the side 

 of the windpipe ; but which the figures, given in the Linnsean Trans- 

 actions quoted, will better explain. 



It has been generally asserted that the Wigeon will not breed in 

 confinement, or at least that the female will not make a nest and per- 

 form the act of incubation ; but that she will lay eggs, which are gene- 

 rally dropped into the water. 



Lord Stanley informs us that he procured a female pintail in Lon- 

 don that had bred in confinement ; this bird paired with a male Wigeon 

 in his Lordship's menagerie, and produced the first year nine or ten 

 young, all of which were destroyed by the rats. The second year she 

 produced six young, four of which are now living, and are above a year 

 old. It is remarkable that this pintail was so tenacious of her nest in 

 the advanced state of incubation, as to suffer herself to be lifted to 

 examine the eggs, and continued to effect the hatching of them. In 

 the last year the same bird produced eggs, but from some unknown 

 cause forsook them. 



The hybrid birds were much plainer than the male pintail, but more 

 like the female, with a little of the head of the male Wigeon. The 

 male has the posterior parts somewhat like the male pintail, but the 

 middle feathers of the tail are not so long.* 



The Wigeon is found in most parts of Europe ; breeds in the more 

 northern parts. Visits England in the autumn, when great numbers 

 are caught in our decoys for the table, being esteemed an excellent 

 bird. It also frequents our rivers and salt-water inlets in small flocks. 



WILD DUCK.— A name for the Duck. 



WILD GOOSE.— A name for the Bean Goose. 



WILD SWAN (Cygnus ferus, Ray.) 



Anas Cygnus, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 194. — Cygnus ferus, Raii, Syn. p. 136. A. 2. — 



Will. p. 272. t. 69 Cygne sauvage, Buff. Ois. 9. p. 3 Temm. Man. d'Orn. 



2. p. 828.— Wild Swan, Br. Zool 2. No. 264 lb. io\. 149. t. Addend Will. 



