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 j 
possession of a clew to lead us to the fact, that it 
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 j 
latitudes in mottled plumage, we may safely infer 
that he undergoes the same process of a double | 
moulting as the mallard ; on which, perhaps, a paper J 
hereafter. ^ j 
I offer to ornithologists these few observations I 
and speculations on the economy of the wigeon, to i 
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 the 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 
