48 
The Natural History of British Ducks 
with the Gadwall. In the spring of 1899 Mr. St. Quintin picked up a duck's 
egg on the banks of the beautiful lake river where he keeps his waterfowl at 
Scampston. This egg was set, and eventually a young bird was reared and 
reached maturity. This creature, a female, turned out to be an extraordinary 
hybrid, namely, a female cross between a Wigeon and a red-crested Pochard 
{Netta rufina). This is a particularly interesting specimen, from the natura- 
list's point of view, as it is a hybrid between a typical surface-feeding and a 
typical diving duck, two separate families, which were not the least likely to 
interbreed. 
The Young Male Wigeon 
Plumage change. — Certainly one of the chief difficulties in explaining the 
changes of plumage of the surface-feeding ducks lies in their irregularity and the 
difference in duration of time between the first plumage and that of maturity. 
In the case of the Mallard and the Teal we get the quickest and simplest 
transition. The young bird arrives at what is practically its mature plumage 
sometimes as early as the end of October, or at latest by the end of 
November. The Garganey and the Gadwall do not reach their mature plumage 
until March. This is also generally the case with the Pintail, but not always, 
for I have seen young males of this species still retaining traces of their first 
plumage as late as the beginning of July in their second year. Now the 
Wigeon and the Shoveler present such unusual irregularity before they assume 
the full dress, that the explanation of the changes requires careful elucidation. 
The case of the young male Wigeon was to me, at one time, particularly per- 
plexing, as I was unable to make up my mind whether they obtained their full 
plumage at the end of the first year or the middle of the second. 
At first I handled birds in March which were in full plumage even to the 
white wing, and which, I felt sure, were only young birds of the previous year ; 
whilst afterwards, in the breeding stations of the Wigeon, both at home and 
