456 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



fourteenth century the value of wildfowl at York was fixed 

 by law, the price of a " Teall " being id. ; two centuries 

 later at Hull, in 1560, it was placed at 2d. (" Land and Water," 

 17th January 1891) ; while of the bird's abundance on the 

 Doncaster Carrs we have authority in Hatfield's " Historical 

 Notices of Doncaster " (1866), where we are told that thirty- 

 two pairs of Duck and Teal were killed at one shot, by a fowler 

 named Hill, at Hatfield Levels, in the winter of 1692-93. 

 At Hornby Decoy, between 1856 and 1864, two hundred and 

 eleven Teal were taken in the nets ; and from the diary of an 

 old puntsman at the Teesmouth I have extracted some totals 

 of his " bag," the greatest number of Teal killed on one day 

 being twenty-three, in September 1863, 



GREEN WINGED TEAL. 

 Nettion carolinense (y. F. Gmelin). 



Accidental visitant from North America, of extremely rare occurr- 

 ence. 



The only claim of this American species to be included 

 in the Yorkshire list is on the strength of an example recorded 

 by Mr. (afterwards Colonel) John Evans, in the Zoologist 

 (1852, p. 3472), thus : — " I received a few weeks since from 

 Scarborough, a specimen of the American Teal, in good 

 plumage, which was killed near that place last November. 

 I mention it because it is a bird of only recent occurrence 



in this country, not being mentioned in Yarrell's birds 



John Evans, Darley Abbey, near Derby, April 1852." 



The specimen in question passed into the collection of 

 the late Lord Hill, and further information respecting it is 

 not now available. It may, however, be stated that other 

 examples have occurred in England (cf. Saunders' " Manual," 

 2nd Ed. p. 433). 



