TEAL SHOOTING. 201 



In very dry weather, and also during long and hard frosts, teal 

 leave their accustomed haunts and retire to rapid streams and small 

 inland currents, upon which the frost has but little effect. 



To the wildfowler who pursues his sport ashore among fens 

 and dykes teal sometimes affords excellent amusement ; and here, 

 again, the sportsman never need fire a random shot, for if the bird 

 rises out of range it is almost certain to go down again at no great 

 distance. He should mark the spot as carefully as he can, since they 

 sometimes pitch, or pretend to do so, and rise again, skimming along 

 over the stream some fifty or a hundred yards farther. 



A slight blow will kill a teal ; they generally offer a fair shot 

 when they rise from a brook or dyke ; if the sportman happens to 

 miss his shot, it is ten to one but the bird will pitch again close by, 

 unless it be early in the morning, when, on being disturbed, they 

 often fly directly away. 



The teal feeds chiefly in fens and fresh-water pools and streams, 

 which it seems to prefer at all times to salt-water. No other wild- 

 fowl scatter themselves so far inland as teal. They sometimes assem- 

 ble in great numbers on decoys, but I have never seen more than 

 fifty in a spring on open waters near the sea-coast. They are the 

 earliest visitors to the decoy of any wild-fowl ; and there are none 

 which afford the decoyman so much satisfaction for his pains in practis- 

 ing his mysterious art upon them, nor which remunerate him so well. 



It is sometimes the practice of the fowler to delay his performances 

 a few days, when there are only a small spring of teal ; this delay 

 frequently proves highly judicious, for when imdisturbed they assem- 

 ble at decoys in great numbers. Instances have occurred at several 

 of the Essex decoys where from two hundred to four hundred teal 

 have been taken in one day. 



The Garganey. 



The garganey, or siimmer teal, is a bird of elegant proportions, a 

 little larger than the other species, has a longer neck, smaller bones, 

 and lighter coloured plumage. 



The flesh of the garganey is quite equal to that of the common 

 teal, and is considered by the gourmet to be superior. It is seldom 

 found in this country during severe weather ; but in the spring of the 

 year a few of the garganey are generally found about the time wild- 

 fowl migrate to other countries. Early in the winter season, and par- 

 ticularly if the weather continues mild, the garganey may occasionally 

 be met with ; but even in the mildest seasons thev are scarce. 



