TEAL. 389 



buffisli-white margin round the green patch on each side of 

 the occiput ; and only a very faint streak from the base of the 

 bill towards the eye ; it has, on the other hand, a white, 

 crescentic bar in front of the wing, and the mottlings of 

 the plumage are more delicate.* 



The nest of the Teal, placed in rushy herbage, or in 

 morasses and bogs, is formed of decayed vegetable matter, 

 and during the progress of incubation is gradually lined 

 with down and a few feathers. The eggs, varying from ten 

 to fifteen in number, are usually of a pale buffish-white, 

 but a tinge of green is sometimes met with ; average 

 measurements 1'8 by 1*2 in. Various instances are on 

 record of the gentle and confiding habits of this bird with 

 regard to its brood ; and the following was described to Sir 

 R. Payne- Gall wey, in August 1881, by Mr. Salt, Lord 

 Cavan's agent, who witnessed the occurrence : — " Last week 

 a farm-boy near here fell in with a brood of young Teal. 

 He drove them before him to Lord Cavan's Lodge. The 

 mother Teal would not forsake her young, but followed after, 

 keeping close at hand all the time. The boy drove them 

 into the yard and into a little shed. The old bird, following 

 all the time, ran in after them, and though there were dogs 

 and people about, she was not the least afraid." The food 

 of the Teal consists of seeds, grasses, water plants, and 

 insects in their various states. In confinement they require 

 grain. They have been in the Gardens of the Zoological 

 Society since 1830, and have repeatedly bred there. 



Mr. John Hancock states (N. H. Tr. Northumb. vi. 

 p. 153) that he has carefully examined the British specimen 

 of the so-called Bimaculated Duck, figured in the 1st and 

 2nd Editions of this work, but not in the 3rd, and he is 

 convinced that it is a hybrid between the Teal and the 



* Mr. H. NiohoUs states ('The Field,' Iv. p. 8), that a "full-dressed male" 

 example of the American Green-winged Teal was purchased by his brother on 

 the 2^)rd Noveml)er, 1879, from a gunner, who said that he had just shot it 

 on the Kingsbridge estuary, Devon, Thereui>on Mr. Artliur Fellowes writes 

 {torn. cit. p. 79), that he has one shot by his father more than forty years ago, at 

 Hurstbournc Park, Hants. It would be desirable that these specimens should 

 be publicly exhibited before some competent body of ornithologists. 



