OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 367 



Family ANATID^E. Genus NETTION. 



Subfamily ANATINJE. 



AMERICAN TEAL. 



NETTION CAEOLINENSE. Gmelin. 



Anas carolinensis, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 533 (1788) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 



549 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 163 (1894) ; Seebohm, 



Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 40 (1896). 

 Nettion carolinense (Gmel.), Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 250 (1895) ; Sharpe, 



Handb. B. Gt. Brit. ii. p. 286 (1896). 



Geographical distribution British: The American Teal is a very 

 rare accidental visitor to the British Islands. The claim of this species to rank as 

 " British " rests upon the following recorded occurrences. England : Hampshire 

 (one example of doubtful authenticity), about 1838; Yorkshire (one example), 

 November, 1851 ; Devonshire (one example, the most satisfactory of the three), 

 November, 1879. Foreign : Nearctic region, more southerly in winter; extreme 

 northern limit of Neotropical region in winter. It breeds in the Arctic regions 

 of America, from the Aleutian Islands and Alaska in the west to Greenland in 

 the east. It passes the Northern States and Southern Canada on spring and 

 autumn migration, but in these localities a few remain to breed and a few remain 

 to winter ; it also visits the Bermudas abnormally in autumn. It winters in the 

 Southern States, Mexico, the West Indies, and Central America. 



Allied forms. Nettion crecca, the Palaearctic representative of the 

 American Teal, a British species, dealt with fully in the preceding chapter. 



Habits. The American Teal is not known to differ in its habits in any im- 

 portant respect from the Common Teal. It is migratory in the higher and colder 

 latitudes, sedentary in warmer districts, as the Old World Teal is with us. The 

 haunts it frequents are very similar, both in summer and winter. Its flesh is 

 highly esteemed for the table. 



Nidification. The breeding habits of the American Teal the situation 

 and materials of the nest, the period of incubation, the number of eggs are all 

 similar in every important respect to those of the Palaearctic species. The eggs 



