56 The Natural History of British Ducks 
dazed ducks come swimming up alongside, and the shooter can frequently kill 
twenty or thirty birds at the single discharge of a shoulder gun. Around the 
Chesapeake the American Wigeon betray the same parasitical tendencies that 
I have noticed in their European prototypes, namely, the utilisation of other 
birds to procure their food. In Scotland I have seen the Wigeon in scattered 
parties following the big flocks of Brent geese, and eating the discarded 
portions of the Zostera ; I have also seen them take Coot's food by force. On 
the Chesapeake the ' Bald-pates ' jackal to the ' Redheads ' and ' Canvas Backs,' 
and they even attack both, and by their superior activity wrest the vallisneria, 
or eel-grass, from its rightful owner. In great masses of duck, such as are to 
be seen on the Chesapeake, such acts of piracy keep the various species of 
ducks in a state of continuous restlessness. The ' Bald-pates ' too, from their 
constant movement and false alarms, keep all the ducks on the qui vive, 
much to the annoyance of the hidden sportsman, whose desire is the more 
delicious and valuable 'Canvas Back.' 
Except that their food grows in less marine and exposed situations, the 
general habits of the American bird are practically similar to our own. Their 
modes of courtship, which I have once observed, are also precisely similar, as 
is also the call-note of both male and female. In the case of the * Whee-ou ' 
of the male it is not nearly so wild and strong as our bird, but produced in 
a similar manner. 
The nest of the female American Wigeon is usually placed in high and 
dry ground at some distance from the water, and sometimes under trees or 
bushes. She lays from seven to twelve buff-white eggs, size 2'i by 1*5 inches. 
Several American naturalists are of opinion that the young are carried to the 
water in the bills of their mothers ; but this is not the habit of any other 
surface-feeding duck, and the statement is not one that should be accepted. 
The European Wigeon, the Teal, and the Mallard sometimes nest quite as far 
from the bogs and lakes as the American Wigeon, and they lead their broods 
over land all the way ; and it is extremely unlikely that so closely an allied 
species should be different in this respect. 
