PENELOPE AND THE WIDGEON.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOIL...] SIR,—Penelope, the suitor-beset but faithful wife of Odysseus, bore a name which the Greeks also applied to an aquatic bird, now identified as the widgeon. Eustathius says she had a different birth name, but as a girl having fallen into the sea was rescued by penelope birds," and took the name which has become heroic. It is curious that the authors of "Unexplored Spain,"; doubtless without connecting the birds in anyway with the' lady of Ithaca, give evidence to show that mated couples of widgeon, in spite of long migrations, pair for life. They also write : "Widgeon have a habit of forming groups of four to a dozen birds, consisting of a single female with a bevy of males in attendance, flying aimlessly hither and thither in a mass, the drakes constantly calling, and the one female twisting and turning in all directions as though to avoid their attentions." They add that no other species of duck does this so con- repicuously as the widgeon. If some ancient observers of bird-life had noticed this, it would be a much more probable -explanation of the nomenclature than the rather foolish story -of Eustathius. The birds visited Grecian waters in vast
Previous page
