1<S() ANATID.B. 



numbers constantly recruited tlirough the winter months by 

 additional arrivals from the northern parts of Europe, and 

 our markets in consequence obtain a regular supply from the 

 various decoys and other modes of capture. Although num- 

 bers in spring return again to more northern localities to 

 breed, many remain in this country and pass the summer 

 near fresh- water lakes. That some of these breed here, also, 

 in suitable localities, is proved by the fact that in the summer 

 of 1817, Mr. Youell, of Yarmouth, had four young birds of 

 the Teal brought to him, which were hatched at Reedham 

 in Norfolk. The authors of the Catalogue of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk Birds say also, that very small ones have been ob- 

 served in company with their parents upon Ranworth Broad, 

 by Mr, Kerrison of that place ; and that they breed also on 

 Scoulton Mere. The Rev. Richard Lubbock, of Norfolk, 

 in his note to me on this species, says, " the Teal must, in 

 some years, either breed abundantly with us, or migrate hither 

 very early ; I have known sixty or seventy Teal come in 

 small parties to the same plash of water at sundown, by the 

 first week in August." The Teal bear confinement well, and 

 at the Gardens of the Zoological Society, though restricted 

 to a very small pond with a margin of thick and high grass, 

 with some low shrubs, have bred regularly for the last five 

 seasons. The eggs are white tinged with buff, measuring 

 one inch nine lines in length, by one inch four lines in 

 breadth. The food of the Teal consists of seeds, grasses, 

 water plants, and insects in their various states. In confine- 

 ment they require grain. Some Teal breed about the lakes 

 of Wales, and a few in Romney Marsh. Mr. Selby, who 

 has paid attention to the habits of this species in Northum- 

 berland, says, " our indigenous broods, I am inclined to 

 think, seldom quit the immediate neighbourhood of the place 

 in which they were bred, as I have repeatedly observed them 

 to haunt the same district from the time of their hatching till 



