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grey bird with dark i-ound spots on the breast. Both male and female 

 have a laige green speculum on the wings, from which the name is 

 derived. The flight of these birds is exceedingly rapid and irregular, 

 and their mode of alighting sudden and abrupt. They are ve^y easily 

 approached and do not exhibit iso much alarm at the jjroxiniity of man 

 as many of tlie larger species. Their note is a hoarse quack, which, 

 however, is seldom lieard except when they are suddenly alarmed and 

 put to flight. It is very doubtful whetlier they breed in this part of 

 Canada. It is certain, however, as far as my experience can determine, 

 that young broods are never seen here. The green winged teal resorts 

 chiefly to inundated lands in the spring, and to shallows near shores 

 and adjacent to rapids in the autumn. They do not dive when feeding ; 

 but when wounded are almost equal to the .loon or the golden eye 

 under water. Tlie blue winged teal {Querquedula discors) is seldom 

 seen in this neighbourhood until late in the season. It arrives about 

 the 15th September, and then, as a rule, only in limited numbers. An 

 old male bird of this species is nearly as large as a wood duck, although 

 much shorter in the body and neck. They are commonly seen in flocks 

 of from eight to twelve feeding on low marshy ground and along the 

 shores of streams. In exceptional seasons, I have seen flocks of blue 

 winged teal containing iipwards of two hundred. This occurred on the 

 Hiver Goodwood one afternoon late in Se{)tember, about fourteen years 

 ago. Tliey did not all get away ; for, during part of the day, I 

 killed fifty ducks, and ]3addled niy own canoe in a stiff breeze into the 

 bargain. The flight of the blue winged teal is very rapid, like that of 

 the pigeon ; and when about to alight they drop down suddenly like a 

 snipe or a woodcock. As a rare delicacy the flesh of this bird is unsur- 

 passed, if it is equalled, by any bird of the duck family. In habit, the 

 blue winged teal is identical with the black duck, the wood duck, and 

 the green winged variety, in diving only in sport and when wounded. 

 These liirds may frequently be seen in com[)any with the bhick du6ks. I 

 remember having on one occasion knocked down two black ducks and 

 three blue winged te^l at one discharge. On several other occasions I 

 have kilhd a mallard, a black duck, and a wood duck at a single shot. 

 If not much distui'bed, the blue winged teal is comparatively easy of 

 approach ; consequently it falls an easy prey to the gun of the si)orts- 



