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Eurasian wigeon (Anas penelope) are very wary and disturbance is extremely important to their feeding behavior. Owen used Fenning Island, a peninsula bounded on one side by the river Parrett estuary and on the seaward side by a shingle ridge, an observation tower and farm access on the third (landward) side to calculate an index to "disturbance" (see his 1973 paper immediately above). Disturbance is fairly heavy from the landward and seaward side, but light on the estuary bank, so the combined distance from the center of each plot to the shingle ridge and to the observation tower was used as a measure of the magnitude of the disturbing influence. Owen expected that differences between plots where droppings were counted would be correlated with distance from disturbance. The correlation coefficient between count of droppings and the summed distance for disturbance was +0.496 (n. s.) in 1968-69; +0.817 (P < 0.01) in 1969-70; and +0.325 (n. s.) in 1970-71. Dr. Owen included landscape factors in his calculations. Landscape factors, however, do not fit into our definition of human disturbance, but this is an interesting research approach to disturbance.