Wigeon

“ In April and May it migrates to higher latitudes: in Scotland it is partly a resident species, and breeds in many localities; and, in less numbers, it also remains to breed in Ireland. The wigeon differs a good deal from other ducks in its feeding habits: it feeds both by day and night, in the water and on land. On land it is, like the goose, a grass-eater, and in Lapland is known from this habit as the ‘grass-duck.’ In disposition it is one of the shyest and wariest; and at the same time the most gregarious, among the waterfowl, and often unites in immense flocks. ”

“ Our own British species have not been neglected, and the notes thereon are as full and interesting as usual.
Of course, in Aves we have found our strength, and the papers and notes thereon show no diminution in the activity of our ornithological contributors. Among so much information we can here refer to few features, but the record of the Wigeon (Mareca penelope) breeding in Ireland, and that, of the American Wigeon (M. americana) breeding in Iceland, are new facts of the highest ornithological interest. ”

“ It matters not what the temperature of the season may be, the immense flocks of Wigeon and Teal are never seen as they were formerly, and some species, as the Goosander and Pochard, are usually absent altogether; the former beautiful species was never abundant, but the latter was once killed in some numbers. It is true the Teal, years ago, often nested in the Forest or in the valley of the Avon, but not in such numbers as to produce the enormous flocks which used to "swish" over one's head in the winter twilight; and I recollect an old sportsman once killing six Pintails at a single shot. ”

“ Donovan, in his 'Natural History of British Birds' (vol. vi. 1809) , states that a specimen occurred to him in the month of January, 1801, among a number of wildfowl exposed for sale in Leadenhall Market. It was a male, and was supposed to have been taken in the fens of Lincolnshire. More than one species (e.g. the American Wigeon) has been admitted into the British list on claims no stronger than this. We may safely assume that a hundred years ago no wildfowl came imported for the table into the London market from the other side of the Atlantic. ”

“ Forty-two wigeons have been killed at a single shot in the day-time, and the difficulty of approaching the great flocks of fowl in the light is tenfold. A man, in whose punt the compiler was, got eighteen wigeons at one shot, and many that were crippled, escaped. ”

“ The first points to the probability that adults pair for life, and that the mated couples keep together all winter even when forming component units in a crowd. For when an adult female is shot from the midst of a pack, the male will almost invariably accompany her in her fall to the very surface of the water, and will afterwards circle around, piping disconsolately, and even return again and again in search of his lost partner. This applies chiefly to wigeon, but we have frequently observed the same trait in pintail and occasionally in other species. ”

“ Nettion crecca (Linn.) . Teal.—The first pair appeared on July 16th, and the species had become abundant by the 30th.
Mareca penelope (Linn.) . Wigeon.—I shot a couple of young birds on North Cotes sluice on Sept. 19th. A great many Wigeon visited the Humber during the winter.
Turtur communis. Selby. Turtle Dove.—Last seen on Sept. 20th; two young birds at North Cotes.
Crex pratensis, Bechst. Land-Rail.—Last seen on Sept. 24th; a single bird in a Turnip field at Tetney.
Porzana maruetta (Leach) . Spotted Crake.—Only seen once; a single bird in some reeds near the coast at Tetney on Sept. ”

“ In spring large flocks of Wigeon may be observed pulling at the succulent stems of the Potamogeton pectinatus (local, "Wigeon-grass") , the Curlew boring deep to find the Nereid worms, and smaller species of Waders busily hunting Gammaridæ, Mysis vulgaris, and other crustaceans. Herons are seldom absent, for the Shore-Crabs (Carcinus mænas) and the Eels and Flounders have attractions for them. In autumn various migrants, the juniors coming first, are often abundant, and various Ducks and Geese and Swans may be expected in wintry weather. ”

“ Wigeons commonly fly in small flocks during the night, and may be known from others by their whistling note while they are on the wing. They are easily domesticated in places where there is plenty of water, and are much admired for their beauty, sprightly look, and busy frolicsome manners.
The tail, which consists of fourteen feathers, is of a hoary brownish ash, edged with yellowish white; the two middle ones are sharp-pointed, darker and longer than the rest. The legs and toes are of a dirty lead colour, faintly tinged with green; the middle of the webs and nails black. ”

“ By none of the early authors to whose works I have been able to refer is the Wigeon called Pochard, although the Pochard has been called Red-headed Wigeon. Unless Mr. Meiklejohn can show that the Welsh Gwilym (=a Guillemot) is the same word as the Welsh Gwylan (=a Gull; Breton gwelan, goulen, or goelann; Cornish guilan or gullan) —which is not likely—he will find it difficult to sustain his contention that the guille in Guillemot is the same word as gull. Ray (1674) has Guilliam for Guillemot; and Martin (1698) says that this bird is called "by the Welch a Guillem." Prof. ”

“ Wigeon, Mareca penelope (Linn.) .—Large flocks off Teesmouth in November and December.
Scaup, Fuligula marila (Linn.) .—5 Buoy Tees L.V., Jan. 23rd, 1881, "Bell Wigeon" [Scaup] , great number to W.N.W.
Long-tailed Duck, Harelda glacialis, (Linn.) .—Inner Farne L.H., Oct. 20th and 22nd, several off island.
Eider Duck, Somateria mollisima (Linn.) .—On Sept. 24th, at Coquet Island L.V., twenty Eider Drakes and one female off island; and at Inner Farne L.V., in Oct., hundreds, both males and females, swimming under lee of islands. The King Eider, S. spectabilis (Linn.) ”

“ He knew the call well, for many times had he and his mate preyed upon the wild duck in the Devon estuary opposite Lundy Island.
The next moment he had gone through the trees, a swift shadow. A little vole splitting a beechmast on the ground below crouched in terror. For everything preyed upon its kind. The weasel came by day, and in summer the grass snake; if it left the wood and went to the meadow there was the poised kestrel hawk; in the furrows a fox sometimes ran, snapping at the tiny mice; in the dark night came the great wood owl, and that white devil, the barn owl. ”

“ The nest is formed of decayed vegetable matter, lined with down and feathers, and it contains eight or ten eggs. The teal feeds on grass and water plants, and also on various kinds of insects; but, [Pg 372] when kept in this country all the year, during the winter it requires grain.
The widgeon, Mr. Waterton tells us, "is a much more familiar bird than either the pochard or the teal. While these congregate on the water, beyond the reach of man, the widgeon appears to have divested itself of the timidity observable in all other species of wild-fowl, and approaches very near to our habitations." ”

“ The American Widgeon, the bird which is represented as falling headforemost with collapsed wings, shot perfectly dead without a struggle, in the accompanying woodcut, while the Mallard goes off safely, quacking at the top of his voice in strange terror, though nearly allied to the European species, is yet perfectly distinct, and peculiar to this continent. ”

“ As he journeyed he saw many a fine deer and moose. Some he shot, others he let go unharmed, for he was always seeking bigger game. Ever the wind grew more cold and cutting, the grass and leaves began to wither and disappear, and soon there was a covering of ice on the water and a blanket of snow on the ground.
But A-wah-nee put on his snow shoes and went skimming away, until at last [63] he came to a huge wigwam almost buried in the drifts of snow. There was a thread of smoke curling up from the top, and A-wah-nee, who had begun to feel cold and weary, lifted the tent flap and walked in. ”

“ Then each big ant took up a grain of sand, and then they all hurried up, and put them on Uncle Wiggily, who stretched out in the grass. Now all those ants together could carry lots of sand, you see, and soon the rabbit was completely buried from sight, all but the tip of his nose, so he could breathe, and when the giant came rumbling, stumbling by, he couldn't see the bunny, and so he didn't eat him. And, of course, the giant didn't eat the ants, either for he didn't like them. ”

“ Being shot into an animal, the arrow would fall off leaving the barb in the body, and as the animal moved this would gradually work into its vitals and soon deprive it of life.
In those days their shirts and leggins were made of finely dressed deer and elk skins sewed together with the sinews of these animals. They made their wigwam covering of birch bark and rushes; their canoes of birch bark and thin strips of cedar wood, sewed together with the small roots of the pine tree, and gummed with the pitch of the pine, balsam, or tamarac. ”

“ I wonder who lives there?" thought the rabbit. "It is too small for a giant to live in, but there may be a bad bear or a savage fox in there. I guess I'd better get away from here."
Well, Uncle Wiggily was just going, when, all at once, a voice cried out:
"Here, hold on there!"
The rabbit looked back, and he saw a great big porcupine, or hedgehog—you know, those animals like a big gray rabbit, only their fur is the stickery-prickery kind, like needles, and the quills come out and stick in anybody who bites a hedgehog. So I hope none of you ever bite one. ”

“ To-day in Australia we find the spoonbill, a creature with the body of an otter and a duck's beak. It is, with the exception of this beak, a mammal, and a mammal bears its young alive and suckles them; yet the spoonbill, like a fowl, is reproduced from an egg. Then there are more than a score of species of marsupials found nowhere on earth, not to mention that wingless bird, the emu."
It would appear possible that the creature which carried away Wiggins came from Australia—possible, but hardly probable," Von Weigand replied. ”

“ She dwells alone in her wigwam Her arm is strong. Her eye is keen, like the hawk's. The deer fall before her, and her arrow can find the heart of the grizzly bear. Her corn stands higher than the grass of the prairie. She can feed the young pale-faces. ”

“ The boy put the arrow in his quiver.
Red Squirrel said, “You pass my wigwam very often. You cry because you cannot kill birds. Your fingers are numb with cold. Obey me. Thus it shall always be summer. Thus you can kill many birds.”
From Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Permanent Ash-Bark Wigwam of the Wild Rice Gathering Ojibwa.
[Pg 105] Red Squirrel said again, “Obey me. When you reach your father’s wigwam, throw down your bow and arrows. Begin to weep. If your mother says, ‘My son, what is the matter?’ do not answer her. Continue weeping. ”

“ It was some days before I correctly interpreted their curious contradictory actions, and as I remember it now, my hint came from a spider-web which had spread its catch all beneath a lilac-bush, and upon which I discerned a number of tiny balls of sawdust which had chanced to fall upon it. Looking directly above, among the branches, I soon found a wiggler, not only gnawing the wood but with one-third of its body in a burrow in a twig the size of my finger. ”

“ So all the ants hurried along together, and crawled to the castle of the bad giant, and they got there just as he was putting some molasses on Uncle Wiggily to eat him. And those ants crawled all over the giant, on his legs and arms, and nose and ears and toes, and they tickled him so that he squiggled and wiggled and squirreled and whirled, and finally he let Uncle Wiggily fall on a feather bed, not hurting him a bit, and the rabbit gentleman hopped safely away and the ants crawled with him far from the castle of the bad giant. ”

“ All around the great central arbour they make little dwarf huts, or wigwams, of the growing grass, bending the stems together till the ends meet, and then thatching them over with a horizontal layer of twigs. When all is finished, they chase each other through their trellised arbour and round and round their little grassy wigwams—or “gunyahs” as they are called by the natives—the males, all resplendent in their beautiful golden plumage, glancing in and out amongst them, like so many little suns. ”

“ My destiny slumbered during the day, but at eight o’clock I heard a terrific squawking in the direction of the duck-ponds, and, aimlessly drifting in that direction, I came upon Phœbe trying to induce ducks and drakes, geese and ganders, to retire for the night. They have to be driven into enclosures behind fences of wire netting, fastened into little rat-proof boxes, or shut into separate coops, so as to be safe from their natural enemies, the rats and foxes ”

“ Our wigwam is raised with skill and care In some quiet forest nook; Our healthful fare is of ven'son rare, Our draught from the crystal brook. In summer we trap the beaver shy, In winter we chase the deer, And, summer or winter, our days pass by In honest and hearty cheer. ”

“ The clammy vapour chilled them to the bone: while the unceasing wailing of seagulls, borne off the lough, the whistle of an unseen curlew on the hillside, the hurtle of wings as some ghostly bird swept over them—these were sounds to deepen the effect, and depress men who had reason to suspect that they were being led to a treacherous end. ”

“ But the rabbit was ready for him and ran down the hill and the wolf ran after him, howling at the top of his grillery-growlery voice, for he was very hungry.
My! how Uncle Wiggily did run. And the wolf ran also, and he was catching up to the rabbit, and probably would have eaten him all up, but just then a kind bumble bee who knew Uncle Wiggily flew off a tree branch and stung that wolf on the end of his nose. ”