TEAL. 25 
In Orkney, though a resident throughout the year, it is by 
n0 means numerous, but is most plentiful during winter: some 
stay to build in the summer. In Ireland also, it 1s a common 
and indigenous species; the same remark applies to Scotland. 
The situations it frequents are the edges of rivers, lakes, 
pools, ponds, and streams, watery meadows, wet stubble-fields, 
and ditches, especially where flags and rushes afford both a 
natural screen from observation, and a supply of food; cultivated 
and uncultivated districts, provided that these requirements 
are supplied, are equally sought. 
It is a migratory species, appearing by the middle or end 
of September, and remaining till the middle of March. They 
travel, for the most part, in large flocks, and chiefly by night, 
though large numbers are also seen moving in the daytime; 
in either case at a high elevation. 
These birds are fonder of lochs and inland waters than of 
the sea-side. They are not very shy, and I have seen them 
on a pond adjoining a public highroad, namely, at Burton- 
Agnes, near Burlington. They have a habit, like the Jack 
Snipe, when put up, of flying round and round in circles, 
returning to the same place, after a short flight, unless when 
disturbed in the morning, in which case they rise up high 
in the air, and fly off. During the day they repose on the 
water, or near to its brink, with the head drawn back between 
the shoulders, or hidden under the feathers. They leave for 
their feeding-places immediately after sunset. These birds are 
excellent eating. They do well in confinement, and have 
bred in the gardens of the Zoological Society. The males 
assemble in small parties, in the latter part of the season, 
before the females and the young make their appearance. 
They fly very lightly and well, and, when in flocks, both 
in single line and the form of a triangle. They run very 
nimbly and cleverly among reeds and other long herbage. 
They make their food of barley, oats, and grain generally; 
duck-weed and other plants, grass, seeds, and water-insects. 
The search for these occupy their ‘Night Thoughts,’ for, as 
before observed, they rest during the day. The first-named 
they moisten before swallowing. 
The nest, which is usually built by the margin of an 
inland lake, but sometimes near the sea-shore, and in clefts 
of rocks and stony places, is placed among, and constructed 
of heath, grass, or other vegetable substances, in moorland 
and marshy districts, in rushy or boggy places. ‘There is a 
