whewer

plural whewers

1. UKdialectalwhew duck, Eurasian wigeon, wigeon (Mareca penelope).

   Peckards 3—broadbills 5—whewers 2

   1634, Althorp MS. in Simpkinson, Washingtons (1860), page xxiii

   4 more examples

   Boscas, aliis Anas Fistularis … the Whewer, or Whistling Widgeon.

   1668, Charleton, Onomast., page 100

   With the Fish I have put up in a Box some Water Fowl, viz. a Pocker, a Smew, three Sheldins, a Widgeon, and a Whewer; which two last are Male and Female of the same kind.

   1718 [1674], John Ray, Francis Willughby, Philosophical Letters Between the Late Learned Mr. Ray and Several of His Ingenious Correspondents, Natives and Foreigners: To which are Added Those of Francis Willughby Esq, page 21

   Widgeons are common in Cambridgeshire, the Isle of Ely, &c. where the male is called the widgeon, and the female, the whewer. They feed upon wild periwinkles, grass, weeds, &c. which grow at the bottom of rivers and lakes. Their flesh has a very delicious taste, not inferior to teal, or wild ducks.

   1806, Thomas Smith, The Naturalist's Cabinet: Containing Interesting Sketches of Natural History; Illustrative of the Natures, Dispositions, Manners, and Habits of All the Most Remarkable Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Amphibia, Reptiles, &c. in the Known World, page 217

   the choicer fowl of mallard and widgeon (locally "whewers"), both in the Humber and the Tees, the former species being, of course, resident in the county.

   1908, Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News, page 172