Green-winged Teals 



Common Teal of Britain. 



slender in the American, and the edges of the upper man- 

 dible considerably overlap those of the lower mandible. In 

 the American, the white streak is wanting which extends 

 from the bill over the eye in the European ; and the white 

 line below the eye is also nearly wanting, being but very in- 

 distinctly marked in the American. The beautiful cream- 

 coloured longitudinal band on the scapulars, which is so 

 evident in the European, is totally wanting in the other; 

 while across the shoulder, a very distinct transverse bar of 

 white (about IJin. long, and three eighths of an inch broad) 

 is noticed, no trace of which is seen in the European. 



Now, to me, these marks afford sufficient evidence of the 

 birds not belonging to the same species. When we speak 

 of a variety of a bird, we mean a certain departure from the 

 ordinary structure or plumage of that species ; but where so 

 many writers, for so long a period, have noticed a decided 

 difference among the members of what was supposed the same 

 species, we cannot surely longer continue the inappropriate 

 term of variety. 



For the better illustration of the subject, I shall accompany 

 these remarks by figures of both the species ; and any one 

 who compares them must, I think, be struck with the differ- 

 ence. {Jigs. 1. and 2.) It is strange that Wilson should 

 have given a figure of the American bird, without the white 

 line extending over the eye, and with the transverse bar on 

 the shoulder, two of the most distinguishing marks, and yet 

 have called it merely a variety of the European ; while in 

 Rennie's edition of Montagu's Or?iithological Dictionary we 

 find an engraving intended to represent the British species, 

 but which is evidently copied from Wilson's plate, and marked 



