DUCKS. 155 



TEAL. Qucrqucdiila crecca, (L.) 



Yarrell, iv. p. 387; Hartimj, p. 62; Dreiser, vi. p. 507; Ibis 

 Lid, p. 127; Alias crecca, Secbohm, iii. p. 545; Pulieney's 

 Lid, p. 21. 



Next to the Wigeon and the ordinary Wild Duck, 

 the Teal is perhaps the commonest wild-fowl we 

 have, being resident, and breeding here in snitable 

 localities. Its numbers are increased in the winter 

 by large accessions from the North. It is usually 

 abundant on the lakes at Crichel and Morden Park, 

 and several broods were hatched at the latter place in 

 the summer of 1887. 



WIGEON. Morec^i penelope, (L.) 



Yarrell, iv. p. 397 ; Dresser, vi. p. 541 ; Ibis List, p. 123 ; Anas 

 penelope, HurtiiKj, p. 62; Seehvlnn, iii. p. 539; Pulieney's 

 List, p. 21. 



As a winter visitor, sometimes arriving in very 

 large flocks, the Wigeon is well known to wild-fowl 

 shooters on the coast. The females generally arrive 

 before the males in October, and when the winter is 

 nearly over, they take the lead again, and leave the 

 males behind. As a proof of this, Colonel Hawker 

 mentions that a wild-fowler of his acquaintance shot 

 in Poole harbour, one night about the beginning of 

 March, forty-four Wigeon, all males but tAvo. 



On the Dorsetshire coast the shooters' terms for 

 a large flock of Wigeon are a company ; for about 

 thirty or forty, a hunch or trij) of birds ; and for 



