GARGANEY 235 



the journey. But probably, in her anxiety for her young, she had eyes 

 for nothing else. 



Not even when courting is the male teal vociferous : when on 

 the wing he will occasionally utter a low double whistle. The duck 

 quacks like the mallard female, but lower, more hurriedly, and less 

 defined, while the male occasionally gives forth a sibilant note or two, 

 like that of the mallard drake. But young teal, when in packs in the 

 autumn, are said to keep a constant low clucking chatter. 



GARGANEY 

 [W. P. PYCRAFT] 



In spite of the handsome livery of the male, the garganey has 

 somehow failed to attract the attention which it deserves, for it is a 

 species which affords profitable themes for discussion in more than 

 one direction, even though, as in regard to details of its coloration, 

 one can scarcely hope to find solutions for the queries that suggest 

 themselves. What, for example, can be the meaning of the curious 

 coloration of the under tail-coverts ? In all the other surface-feeding 

 ducks discussed in these pages, these feathers, in the male, in his 

 " nuptial " dress are black, with a more or less metallic sheen. In 

 the garganey alone they are coloured after the fashion affected by 

 the females of the race, or of the males in eclipse. Again, why is it 

 that though it enjoys a wide distribution, it is nowhere met with in 

 such abundance as, for example, are mallard and wigeon. Perchance 

 this numerical inferiority is due to its inability to stand cold, for its 

 northern range falls far short of that of the mallard and wigeon. It 

 is also the least edible, or rather the least esteemed for table, of 

 all the surface - feeding species, and this apparently because it 

 feeds more largely, as we shall show, on animal food than any 

 of the others. 



