2 1 14 FLAMINGOES, DUCKS, AND SCREAMERS 



tributed over Europe and Asia generally, breeding in the British Islands, and visit- 

 ing India and North Africa in the winter, while it occasionally occurs in Eastern 

 North America. On this continent its place is taken by the American teal 

 (Q. carolinensis} , distinguished by the presence of a broad, white crescent on each 

 side of the breast. The garganey, or summer teal (Q. circia), is a larger bird 

 representing a second group of the genus, in which the head is crestless, the bill 

 longer, and the wing coverts bluish. In the male, of which the length is from 

 fifteen to sixteen inches, the plumage of the back is not vermiculated; the upper 

 part of the head is dark brown, beneath which is a white stripe running above the 

 eye and thence down the side of the neck; the wing coverts are pale bluish gray, 

 the wing speculum dull green bordered with white, the front of the neck and breast 

 brown, and the middle of the abdomen white. The garganey is a migratory species 

 widely distributed over Europe and Asia, occasionally visiting the British Islands in 

 spring, and wintering in the Mediterranean countries, India, China, Japan, etc. 

 The American blue- winged teal (Q, discolor] differs by the distinctly-blue wing 

 coverts, the presence of a white crescent between the beak and the eye, and by the 

 under tail coverts being black, instead of white spotted with brown, in the male. 

 The cinnamon teal {Q. cyanoptera) of Western America differs from the latter by 

 the chestnut, instead of lead colored, head and neck of the male; and there are sev- 

 eral other species, in some of which, such as the Asiatic clucking teal (Q. formosa}, 

 the scapulars are elongated. 



The common teal breeds either among reeds and sedge on the mar- 

 gin of lakes and swamps, or on boggy moors; the nest being a large 

 structure composed of water plants, lined with feathers or down, and the number of 

 eggs in a clutch varying from eight to ten in Britain, and from ten to fifteen in Lap- 

 land. When unmolested teal feed both by night and day, but when much shot at 

 they become mainly nocturnal feeders. In India, where they arrive by thousands 

 in the cold season, teal frequent large sheets of water in the daytime, and resort to 

 rice fields and shallow marshes in the evening. Nearly as swift on the wing as pin- 

 tail, teal, writes Mr. Hume, " turn and twist in the air with a rapidity second only 

 to the cotton teal, and they have a habit after being flushed of dropping suddenly 

 again. They swim easily, but not very rapidly, and they cannot dive to much pur- 

 pose, so that a wounded bird, unless there are weeds near, under which it can lie 

 with only the bill above water, has, as a rule, but a poor chance of escape. On the 

 land, if the ground be fairly smooth, they walk with tolerable ease; but it is rare 

 to see them, as one often sees the wigeon, well out on the dry sward, walking for 

 pleasure." Their chief food is of a vegetable nature, but they also consume water 

 insects and mollusks. The common teal is usually seen in India in moderate-sized 

 parties, but occasionally in large flocks, although never in the countless thousands 

 in which the garganey sometimes congregrates in that country. In March, how- 

 ever, they associate in pairs, and then afford very pretty shooting when lying on 

 the water beneath the steep banks of the larger rivers. The teal is the easiest 

 of all ducks to net and snare; immense numbers being captured during the cold 

 weather in India, and kept alive through the summer in specially constructed 

 "tealeries." 



