LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 99 



dence we have, that the European teal is the common breeding species of this region, 

 where it is fairly abimdant, and that the green-winged teal, which is so abundant on 

 the main land of Alaska, occurs on the islands rarelj^ if at all. 



Courtship. — Mr. John G. Millais (1902) has given us a beautiful 

 colored illustration of the courtship of the teal in which a number of 

 handsome males are seen displaying their plumage, sitting upright in 

 the water around the different females or venturing nearer to offer 

 their attentions. I quote from his description of it as follows: 



It is a pretty sight, this spring display of the teal, all the more so as many take 

 part in it, and the positions of the male birds are curious and extravagant. As if by 

 mutual consent, several drakes raise their bodies from the water, erect the tail, arch 

 the neck and pass their bills down the chest, at the same time they give voice to the 

 low double whistle. During this movement the female sometimes permits one or 

 even two drakes to approach her closely, whilst all the others are disposed in a circle 

 or semicircle near at hand; but if any male that has not found favor in her eyes seeks 

 to approach she will drive him off at once — an ignominious position which he seems 

 to accept without question. It is only after some days of this volatile flirtation that 

 the female eventually goes off with one male and remains strictly monogamous for 

 the rest of the season, for after the end of April one never sees amouffst teal the ierdum 

 quid arrangement so common with other ducks. 



Nesting, — The same writer says of its nesting habits ; 



The nest is to be found in almost any sort of sheltered position near the water, but 

 the female evinces a marked {partiality for placing it in heather. In Scotland I have 

 usually noticed it in open heaths, sometimes far from the lake or bog, but generally 

 near to a burn that leads to them. The eggs number from 8 to 15, are of a creamy- 

 white color, sometimes with a faint tinge of green, which fades soon alter their con- 

 tents are extracted : size l.S by 1.2 inches. None of the ducks show such an affection 

 for their young as the female teal; when flushed with her young brood she will dis- 

 play greater bravery in their defence and evince more solicitude for their welfare 

 than almost any bird. Teal drakes, on occasion, like the mallard and the shoveler, 

 will sometimes even betray a very distinct alarm when their wives and families are 

 threatened, for I once disturbed a teal duck with young on an open moor at Cawdor. 

 The drake was with her, and he, much to my surprise, was almost as anxious as the 

 female to lead me away, resorting several times to the broken-leg feints of his dis- 

 tressed partner. 



The nest that we found at Unalaska, referred to above, was made 

 of down, feathers, and bits of grass; it was well concealed in a thick 

 clump of tall, coarse, dead grass, not over 10 feet from the bank of a 

 swift and shallow stream, which flowed in a winding course through 

 a broad alluvial plain back of Iliuliuk village. The plain was more 

 or less gravelly in places and was partially covered with coarse 

 grasses and scattered clumps of small willow bushes; it \\'as sur- 

 rounded by steep grassy hills, rising beyond to snow-capped moun- 

 tains and narrowed at one end into deep valleys and gorges through 

 which two mountain streams came tumbling down over the rocks to 

 form the little river which had evidently formed the plain. 



Similar picturesque valleys and Hat alluvial plains were found on 

 many of the Aleutian Islands; these were the favorite resorts of the 



