200 THE BIEDS OF OXFOEDSHIHE. 



on the 14th February, 1881 (T. W. Falcon), also one or two 

 in November of the same year (H. A. Macpherson, IIS.); 

 while in December, 1 882, a male sent up thence was hanging in 

 Oxford Market. Mr. W. H. Warner informs me that a male 

 was shot at Standlake, and there is a specimen in the Univer- 

 sity Museum labelled ' Sandford.-* As late as the 30th March 

 in 1850, a drake Pintail was shot near Henley, by Mr. G. 

 Jackson, of Greenlands (A. H. Cocks in I'd.). 



THE TEAL. ^ \^ 



Querquedida crecca. 



The Teal is best known as a winter visitor, but of late 

 years it has remained to nest in two or three instances, and 

 there is little doubt that with the protection now afforded to 

 birds in the breeding-season it will be found to do so annually. 

 On the 27th April, 1874, the Otter hounds put up a male 

 Teal from the Cherwell near Heyford (A. H. Cocks in lit.), 

 while in the same month in 1880, I found a pair in an osier- 

 bed at the point of junction of the Swere with the Cherwell. 

 I have also seen the Teal on the upper Isis, near Eynsham, in 

 April. In 1884, and the following year, young broods of 

 Teal came under my notice in the first week of August on 

 Clattercote Reservoir. Mr. Fowler has seen it in August at 

 Kingham. 



The winter visitors generally arrive in October, considerable 

 numbers being sometimes seen on the flooded meadows, or 

 wheeling over the water; occasionally as many as twenty or 

 thirty in a ' spring,^ or ' coil,^ are seen, and I once counted 

 sixty together on Clattercote Reservoir, on the 24th October, 

 1885. 



From their diminutive size, and habit of pitching down 

 suddenly from a height with great rapidity, Teal are seldom 

 shot at flight time, though they often splash down quite close 

 to the gunner, who one moment hears their short sharp wliistle 

 in the aii' above him, and the next the harsh grating quack 



