190 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER. 



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Teal were shot in great numbers by our party. The teal of 

 Kerguelen's Land (Querquedula Eatoni) is peculiar to the island 

 and the Crozets. It is somewhat larger than our common teal, 

 and of a brown colour, with a metallic blue streak, and some 

 little white on the wing. It is enormously abundant all about 

 Kerguelen's Land, near the coast. I killed in one day, twenty- 

 seven teal, and similar bags were frequent. Four or five guns 

 used to bring back usually over 100 birds. 



The teal feed mainly on the fruit of the Kerguelen cabbage, and 

 are extremely good eating. They were the greatest treat possible 

 to us, when living, as we necessarily were, almost entirely on 

 preserved meat. 



The teal are to be found mostly in flocks, or when breed- 

 ing in pairs. They are, where they have not been shot at by 

 sealers, remarkably tame, and require to be kicked up almost to 

 afford a shot. At one valley near Three Island Harbour in 

 Eoyal Sound, which had probably not been visited by man for 

 thirty or forty years, perhaps hardly ever, after tramping some 

 distance after teal without success, I saw a flock get up from the 

 bed of a river which ran down the valley, about 150 yards off. I 

 thought the birds must be wild and had been recently shot at ; but 

 no, they got up merely to come and look at me. They pitched 

 about 40 yards off, and then set off running towards me in line, 

 like farm-yard ducks, seven of them in a row, headed by a drake. 

 As a sportsman, I hesitate to describe the termination of the 

 scene. Only those who have been long at sea know what an 

 intense craving for fresh meat is developed by a constant diet of 

 preserved and salt food. The teal were most excellent eating, 

 and there were many mouths to feed. My rule was always to 

 shoot them on the ground if I could, and as many at a shot as 

 possible. When I could not do this I took them flying, and with 

 tolerable success. 



Some of the teal were breeding at the time of our visit ; 

 some with young full-fledged and already away from the nest ; 

 others with eggs. The nest is a neat one, placed under a tuft of 

 grass, and lined with down torn from the breast of the parent 

 bird. There were five eggs in one nest that I found. 



The duck, when put up off the nest, to effect which the nest 



