THE TEAL. "5 



Family ANA T1DSE. 



TEAL. 



Qutrquedula crecca, 



THE Teal is the smallest of British Ducks, little more than half the size of 

 a Wigeou and the third of a Mallard, and weighing about twelve ounces. 

 The male in full nuptial attire is a remarkably handsome bird, with bright con- 

 trasting colours and exquisitely pencilled plumage. Its nearest affinities are with 

 the Mallard, and it is scarcely second to that species in numbers and general 

 distribution. The Teal is common to the greater portion of the old world, and 

 there are few districts in Europe in which it has not been recorded as nesting. 

 In the new world it is an occasional straggler. According to Reinhardt and 

 Holboll it has been taken in various parts of Greenland. It is of irregular 

 occurrence in eastern North America, and has several times been obtained close 

 to New York and seen in the market of that city. 



In Europe the Teal is a common nesting species in Iceland, and through the 

 whole of Scandinavia from the south to far up within the Arctic circle. It is 

 plentiful near Archangel in the summer. In the valley of the Petchora, however, the 

 late Mr. Seebohm did not find it north of the Arctic circle. It is sparingly distributed 

 in Faeroe, chiefly in spring and in small flocks. In Shetland tolerably numerous, 

 although nowhere common. It nests generally in the Orkneys ; is not common 

 in the outer Hebrides, but much more so and nesting in the inner islands. Over 

 the whole of the British Islands fairly plentiful in all suitable localities. I do 

 not consider it a common nesting species in Germany. In East Prussia Mr. 

 Hartert says it breeds regularly. Its most southern breeding quarters are in 

 Madeira, and the bird is quite common in the Azores ; while in the Canary Isles 

 it is a visitor in wet winters; there is fairly good evidence of its nesting in 

 southern Spain. In Sardinia it breeds in numbers, and is also a very common 

 winter visitor in flocks of forty to fifty ; and abundant in Corsica at this season ; 

 and in all countries, in winter, on the north side of the Mediterranean basin, 

 specially Portugal and the marismas of southern Spain ; and again on the African 

 side from Tangiers to Egypt, and in the latter country and Nubia the Teal is a 

 most abundant Duck, going as far south as Abyssinia. Canon Tristram found it 



VOL IV. X 



