CHAPTER IV. 
BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 
(Anas Discors.) 
THE Blue-Winged Teal is among the swiftest and 
sprightliest of the duck species. They afford delightful 
sport to the hunter, for they are always with us ata time 
when early fall commences to tinge forest and field with 
its autumn colorings. They are gentle, confiding little 
things, and live, travel and associate together in the great- 
estharmony. They are great lovers of warm sunshine, 
and can be seen sitting on the shore, on muskrat houses 
and small elevations of almost any kind dozing and 
basking in the sun. Active little fellows when feeding ; 
they wade through shallow water, skimming bugs and 
iarvee from the surface, or hastily gulp down a ven- 
turesome insect that indiscreetly gets near them. Un- 
like the larger variety of ducks, they avoid open water 
and content themselves huddling together on the soft 
