BIRDS OF THE STREAMS 93 



Food. Small fish, tadpoles, water-beetles, small 

 Crustacea, &c. 



Nest. March or April. One brood. 



Site. In hole in river-bank made by the bird. 



Materials. None ; but indigestible pellets of fish- 

 bones cast up by the adults are roughly shaped round 

 the eggs. 



Eggs. Six to eight. Pure glossy white, and nearly 

 spherical in shape. 



TEAL (Querquedula crecca). 



Resident, but large numbers are winter visitors. 

 Some remain to nest in suitable localities, though 

 sparingly, in the South. Breeds abundantly in Wales, 

 North oi England, the Orkneys, Scotland, and Ireland. 



Haunts. Rivers and open sheets of fresh water, &c. 

 Our smallest duck. 



Plumage. Crown of head and cheeks chestnut ; 

 round eye and extending back towards nape a broad 

 green stripe margined with buff ; upper parts prettily 

 pencilled in black and white ; speculum green and purple. 

 Rump black. Tail brown ; fore-chest buff, spotted with 

 blackish ; under parts white, buff patch each side of the 

 rump. Flanks vermiculated with black and white. 

 Bill blackish. Legs and feet brownish grey. Length 

 14 in. Female, mottled with brown. Young, very 

 similar to female. Young in down ; brown above with 

 dark streak from forehead to crown ; two other streaks 

 from eye to nape ; yellowish-white below. 



Language. A short, sharp " quack " ; also a soft 

 whistle. 



Habits. On taking to wing they rise almost perpen- 

 dicularly from the water to a fair height, and then 

 shoot off rapidly. Perhaps the tamest of our wild 

 Ducks. It feeds by night. 



Food. Insects and their larvae, seeds of aquatic 

 plants, worms, slugs, mollusca, &c. 



