This is nearly of the same size as the gadwall, weighing generally about twenty-three ounces, and measuring nearly twenty inches in length, and two feet three in breadth.
The bill is an inch and a half long, narrow, and serrated on the inner edges; the upper mandible is of a dark lead-colour, tipped with black. The crown of the head, which is very high and narrow, is of a cream-colour, with a small spot of the same under each eye; the rest of the head, the neck, and the breast, are bright rufous chestnut, obscurely freckled on the head with black spots, and darkest on the chin and throat, which are tinged with a vinous colour; a band, composed of beautifully waved, or indented narrow ash-brown and white lines, separates the breast and neck; the back and scapulars are marked with similar feathers, as are also the sides of the body under the wings, even as low as the thighs, but there they are paler; the belly to the vent is white; the ridge of the wing, and adjoining coverts, are dusky ash-brown; the greater coverts brown, edged with white, (in some specimens wholly white,) and tipped with black, which forms an upper border to the changeable green beauty-spots of the wings, which is also bordered on the under side by another stripe formed by the deep velvet black tips of the secondary quills; the exterior webs of the adjoining quills are white, and those next the back, which are very long, are of a deep brown, (in some specimens a deep black) edged with yellowish white; the greater quills are brown; the vent and upper tail-coverts black.
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. The female is brown, the middle of the feathers deepest; the fore part of the neck and breast paler; scapulars dark brown, with paler edges; wings and belly as in the male. The young of both sexes are grey, and continue in that plain garb till the month of February, after which a change takes place, and the plumage of the male begins to assume its rich colourings, in which it is said he continues till the end of July, and then again the feathers become dark and grey, so that he is hardly to be distinguished from the female.
These birds quit the desert morasses of the north on the approach of winter, and as they advance towards the end of their destined southern journey, they spread themselves along the shores and over the marshes and lakes in various parts of the continent, as well as those of the British isles, and it is said that some of the flocks advance as far south as Egypt. They remain in these parts during the winter, at the end of which the old birds pair, and the whole tribe in full plumage take their departure northward about the end of March. While they remain with us, they frequent the same places, and feed in the same mode as the mallard, and are often taken in the decoys along with them and other kinds of ducks.—Bewick.
Wild, a. Not tame, not domestic; propagated by nature, not cultivated; desert, uninhabited; tempestuous; inconstant, fickle; uncouth, strange; done or made without any consistent order or plan; merely imaginary.
Wild, s. A desert, a tract uncultivated and uninhabited.
Wild Dog, s. An untrained dog; a dog run wild.
In December, 1784, a dog was left by a smuggling vessel near Boomer, on the coast of Northumberland. Finding himself deserted, he began to worry sheep, and did so much damage that he was the terror of the country, within the circuit of above twenty miles. It is asserted that when he caught a sheep, he bit a hole in the right side, and after eating the fat about the kidneys, left it. Several of them thus lacerated were found alive by the shepherds, and being properly taken care of some of them recovered and afterwards had lambs. From this delicacy of his feeding, the destruction may in some measure be conceived, as the fat of one sheep in a day would scarcely satisfy his hunger. Various were the means used to destroy him; frequently was he pursued with hounds, greyhounds, &c., but when the dogs came up to him he laid down on his back, as if supplicating for mercy, and in that position they never hurt him; he therefore laid quietly, taking his rest till the hunters approached, when he made off without being followed by the hounds, till they were again excited to the pursuit, which always terminated unsuccessfully. He was one day pursued from Howick to upwards of thirty miles’ distance, but returned thither and killed sheep the same evening. His constant residence was upon a rock on the Heugh Hill, near Howick, where he had a view of four roads that approached it, and there, in March 1785, after many fruitless attempts, he was at last shot.