TEAL. 391 



remaining like the females, till they acquired new feathers 

 at the autumn moult. 



The female has the whole of the head speckled with dark 

 brown, on a ground-colour of light brown ; upper part of 

 back and scapulars dark brown, each feather with two narrow 

 transverse bars of bufly-brown ; wing like the male, but the 

 speculum has more velvet-black, less green, and no purple 

 colour ; chin pale brown ; lower part of neck on the front 

 and sides varied with two shades of brown, in crescentic 

 marks ; breast white ; sides, flanks, belly, and under tail- 

 coverts, dull white, spotted with dark brown. 



Varieties of the Teal are occasionally met with ; one in 

 the collection of Mr. J. Whitaker, has the wings and back 

 of a light slate-colour, and the breast several shades lighter 

 than usual. 



The nestling is yellowish-white on the under parts ; bufif 

 on the forehead and throat ; a dark brown streak from the 

 forehead to the crown, which, with the upper parts, is brown ; 

 a dark loral streak, and two other streaks from behind the 

 eye to the nape, on each side. 



The trachea of the male Teal is about five inches in 

 length, the tube rather narrower near the middle than at 

 any other part ; the bony enlargement of the size and form 

 represented in the figure below. 



A male example of the ' American Teal ' is stated by 

 Mr. John Evans, without any description, to have been shot 

 near Scarborough in November 1851 (Zool. p. 3472) ; but 

 Mr. W. E, Clarke takes no notice of it in his ' Handbook of 

 Yorkshire Vertebrates,' In 'The Naturalist,' viii. (1858), 

 p. 168, Mr. W. G. Gibson, writing from Dumfries, says, 

 without naming any month, "a specimen of the Blue- 



