2 8o Allen's naturalist’s library. 
young Wigeon, and the bird in question was supposed to 
have been hatched in Hampshire, but it was not a young 
bird at all, but an old male, changing from his short-lived 
summer plumage to his full dress, and, therefore, he was 
probably a non-breeding individual which had remained in 
southern latitudes instead of going north to breed. This I 
take to be the case with the birds which have been seen in 
Norfolk and other counties of England during the summer. 
Range outside the British Islands. — Breeds in the Arctic Re- 
gions of the Old World, from Iceland to Eastern Siberia. 
It also breeds occasionally in more southern latitudes, and 
its eggs have been^ taken on the Lower Danube by Mr. See- 
bohm, so that the improbability of its breeding in England is 
lessened, as the same author states that its nests have been 
found in France, Germany, and Bohemia. The range of the 
species extends eastwards to Kamtchatka. In winter it ranges 
south to Abyssinia and to Madeira, as well as to Northern 
India and the Burmese provinces and China, while stray 
examples have been met with in Borneo, and even as far south 
as the Marshall Islands. In North America it is found in 
Alaska and_ occurs as for south as California, and it is also 
found in winter on the Atlantic coasts. 
Haliits. — In winter, when the AVigeon principally visits our 
coasts, it is a gregarious bird, and often occurs in enormous 
flocks on the sea-coasts and also on inland lakes, herding 
together on the latter with other Ducks, especially the 
Tufted Duck. The male, as is evidenced by the birds lent to 
me by Sir Savile Crossley, gets through his summer moult 
more rajiidly than the female, and leaves to the latter the 
charge of bringing up the young. Lord Lilford says that “ the 
note of the male bird is a shrill double whistle, once heard 
never to be forgotten,” and Mr. Scebohm write.s, “ The cry 
of this Duck is a prolonged whistle or scream, immediately 
followed by a short note. I can best represent it by the 
syllables viee-yn, the first very loud and prolonged, the last 
low and short. It sounds very wild and weird, as in startles 
the ear on the margin of a mountain tarn or moorland lake, a 
solitary cry, high in key, not unmusical in tone, but one of the 
most familiar sounds on the banks of the Betchora or the 
