diff --git a/src/recipes.jl b/src/recipes.jl
index 2a357062..208a4360 100644
--- a/src/recipes.jl
+++ b/src/recipes.jl
@@ -497,6 +497,7 @@ end
 end
 Plots.@deps stepbins path
 
+wand_edges(x...) = (warn("Load the StatPlots package in order to use :wand bins. Defaulting to :auto", once = true); :auto)
 
 function _auto_binning_nbins{N}(vs::NTuple{N,AbstractVector}, dim::Integer; mode::Symbol = :auto)
     _cl(x) = ceil(Int, NaNMath.max(x, one(x)))
@@ -523,9 +524,11 @@ function _auto_binning_nbins{N}(vs::NTuple{N,AbstractVector}, dim::Integer; mode
         _cl(_span(v) / (3.5 * std(v) / n^(1/3)))
     elseif mode == :fd  # Freedman–Diaconis rule
         _cl(_span(v) / (2 * _iqr(v) / n^(1/3)))
+    elseif mode == :wand
+        wand_edges(v)  # this makes this function not type stable, but the type instability does not propagate
     else
         error("Unknown auto-binning mode $mode")
-    end::Int
+    end
 end
 
 _hist_edge{N}(vs::NTuple{N,AbstractVector}, dim::Integer, binning::Integer) = StatsBase.histrange(vs[dim], binning, :left)