TEAL WIGEON. 201 



which is uttered on the water. The sportsman''s best chance 

 with Teal is in hard weather, when, wandering along- streams, 

 he sometimes comes upon a single bird in the still water 

 of some quiet bend, from which it springs with the quickness 

 and ease peculiar to these diminutive ducks. 



THE GARGANEY. \ 1 ^ 



Querquedula circia. 

 The Garganey is a visitor to this country on migration, 

 remaining to breed in Norfolk, and is occasionally found 

 in Oxfordshire. In August, 1830, three apparently young 

 birds alighted on some water on Otmoor, and were all killed 

 by a farmer, who took them to the Messrs. Matthews 

 immediately after [Zoologist, p. 2602). It is possible that 

 these were hatched in the locality. On the 7th November, 

 1885, I saw upon Clattercote Reservoir a duck which could 

 only have been of this species ; it was swimming in company 

 with nine Teal, than which it was slightly but perceptibly 

 larger at first glance, colder and greyer in colour, with more 

 contrasted tints. Mr. Prior informs me that he has a 

 specimen which was shot near Banbiiry, while a remarkably 

 fine drake, preserved in that town, was procured in the 

 Cherwell meadows about 1877. The Messrs. Matthews stated 

 that it had been sometimes, but rarely, killed in their neigh- 

 bourhood in winter. 



THE WIG-EON. 



Mareca penelope. 

 The Wigeon is a winter visitor, a few being procured every 

 year, but it is only in exceptional seasons that it arrives in any 

 numbers. On the ist March, 1879, in very mild weather 

 following severe frosts in the winter, I saw great numbers of 

 Wigeon, together with other fowl, in the meadows at the 

 junction of the Sorbrook and Swere with the Cherwell, which 

 had been in a flooded condition for some weeks. The Wigeon 



