THE CINNAMON TEAL. 



593 



were abolished, a good many pairs would remain to breed. There are, of 

 course, valid sentimental reasons which should discourage the slaughter of 

 mated pairs in spring, but there are even stronger economic reasons why 

 the practice should be abandoned altogether. At the best, ducks of all kinds 

 are decreasing in numbers at an alarming rate. They are doomed as a class, 

 unless prompt and stringent measures are adopted in their behalf. If those 

 ducks which would naturally breed in this latitude, are confronted in spring 

 by the muzzles of our guns, they not only decline to nest with us, but if 

 they succeed in escaping our fire, and if they receive the same treatment in 

 Ontario which they do here, they are obliged to run a gauntlet substantially 

 five hundred miles longer before they feel safe in settling down for the 

 season. And, of course, one bird killed in the spring is equal to three in the 

 fall. In other words, we are consuming our seed wheat, instead of planting 

 it and waiting for the harvest in Nature's time. 



In autumn the Teals are moving southward in leisurely fashion by the 

 ioth of September, altho the last of their number may not clear before the 

 20th of the following month. In the air they move in compact flocks, wheel- 

 ing and charging with a single impulse, and in such ranks that a single broad- 

 side from a waiting gun will sometimes account for dozens. Upon the 

 water, also, they huddle together, and invite a murderous raking fire. In 

 addition to the whistling of the wings, the Teals have a soft lisping note, only 

 remotely related to the typical Anatidine quack, and this is uttered either 

 in apprehension or encouragement. 



Of the bird's nesting in Ohio nothing is known further than that eggs 

 have been taken in the Sandusky marshes. The nests are in the midst of 

 grass or sedges on low ground, and not infrequently at some distance from 

 water. The female habitually covers her eggs with down, if obliged to leave 

 them for a time, and draws the surrounding grasses down over them as an 

 additional protection. 



No. 289. 



CINNAMON TEAL. 



A. O. U. No. 141. Querquedula cyanoptera (Vieill). 



Description. — Adult male : Entire plumage except back and wings, rich 

 chestnut, darker on head, darker and duller on belly, darkest, almost black, on 

 crissum; back and inner scapulars warm dusky, margined with cinnamon or 

 lighter, inner and middle wing-coverts (the latter overlapping and nearly con- 

 cealing the greater coverts), and the outer webs of outer scapulars and tertials 

 beautiful light grayish blue; speculum lustrous green, bounded on sides by dusky 



