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THE AMERICAN WIGEON 
Mareca Americana (J. F. Gmelin) 
This New World representative of our Wigeon breeds in summer in Alaska, 
and in all the northern lands of Canada to Hudson Bay and Labrador. It 
nests in Minnesota, and a few as far south as Wyoming and Texas. With the 
first breath of winter great companies of * Bald-pates,' as they are everywhere 
called in America, come out of the north, moving south throughout the conti- 
nent, and eventually wintering in all the Southern States and Mexico. Some 
go as far as Cuba, Guatemala, and northern South America, and remain there 
until the month of April before again proceeding north to breed. In the 
summer of 1899 ^- Goburn made his interesting discovery that the 
American Wigeon visits two districts in North Iceland for breeding purposes. 
This is the first instance of the species nesting in the Old World, and when 
the ornithology of East Greenland is better known we shall probably find 
that the bird is also common there. 
In Great Britain the American Wigeon must be regarded as a very 
rare visitor, and Mr. Howard Saunders recognises as authentic but two 
instances of its capture in this country. In France it has been taken once, as 
well as in the Azores; but there is little doubt, from its resemblance to the 
European bird, that many have occurred with us but have been unnoticed. 
In America the * Bald-pate ' is far less marine in its habits than the 
European Wigeon. There in winter its favourite resorts are the rice-fields of 
the south, and wild celery beds of the Chesapeake country, where thousands 
are annually slaughtered by men in * sink boats ' who shoot for the markets. 
The work of these gunners is most unsportsmanlike, but effective in its 
destruction. By using a naphtha lamp with a brilliant reflector behind it, the 
