THE AUSTRALIAN TEAL. 83 



Creek, above Williamstown, in which I could always find 

 a flock. The best shot I ever made at ducks in my life 

 was in this creek. I was beating for a snipe on the banks, 

 with a small single gun and one ounce of No. 7 shot. I 

 fired into a mob of spoonies which were going up the 

 creek about fifteen yards from me. I bagged eight. I 

 never at any other time got more than five birds with one 

 barrel, even when properly loaded for ducks. 



The Australian Teal is a handsome little duck, not 

 quite so large as the teal at home, and, next to the 

 black duck, the commonest of all the species. They 

 generally flew in fair-sized flocks, often mixed with the 

 black duck, were tolerably tame, and we rarely brought 

 home a bag of ducks without a couple or so of teal. It 

 appeared to be more common on the coast than any of 

 the other ducks. The male bird is a splendid mottled 

 chestnut and black, with a very brilliant green neck, 

 while the female resembles the European teal. "We saw- 

 so few of these handsome birds in proportion to the others, 

 that I always considered it a distinct variety, which 

 some of the old duck-shooters also did, and used to call 

 it the " merganser." But a young friend of mine took 

 the nest, with seven eggs, out of a hole in a gum-tree, 

 and shot both the old birds, a handsome male and a 

 dull female. Still I felt certain we had two varieties, 

 and that all the dull-coloured birds we killed were not 

 females, and in April, 1857, I shot a dull-coloured bird 

 with a red eye, which, on dissection, proved to be a 

 male. Teal fetch about three shillings per couple in 

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