The Wigeon — Mareca Penelope (Linnæus)
The Wigeon is one of our commonest winter visitors, arriving in large numbers from early in September onwards, and frequenting estuaries, bays, and tidal waters, but rarely wandering far inland. Although feeding also on marine insects and crustacea, it is chiefly a vegetable eater, living almost entirely upon Zostera marina.
In Scotland a good many pairs remain to breed, and during the summer it frequents high moorlands and inland waters. The nest is placed in a tuft of rushes or among heather, and the eggs, usually ten in number, are of a delicate creamy white. The note is a melodious whistle, which may be expressed as “whee you.”
The male has the head and neck chestnut, with a broad buff stripe extending backwards over the crown; back grey uniformly vermiculated; throat and upper neck chestnut; breast white, vermiculated on the flanks; shoulders white; speculum green. In the eclipse plumage the head is dark chestnut, grizzled with brown; back brown, with chestnut edgings to the feathers; flanks chestnut; under parts white. The female is dark brownish grey above, lighter on the wing coverts, and white underneath. Length 18·5 in.; wing 10·5 in.