THE GARGANEY. 12 9 



This species is the representative of the English Teal, (Q. creccaj, on the 

 American Continent, but differs from it in the male bird in some well marked 

 features of plumage. 



It ranges over the whole of the North American Continent, but is more 

 abundant on the Pacific than on the Atlantic side, nesting chiefly north of the 

 United States, and extending its range to Greenland and Alaska. In winter it 

 moves as far south as Mexico, Honduras, and Cuba. It is essentially a fresh- 

 water Duck, and rarely visits sea-water. 



It is a very active bird on land, and when disturbed on water rises with a 

 single spring, and when in full flight its pace is very rapid. It is said to attain 

 a velocity of one hundred and sixty miles an hour. 



The Blue-winged Teal, (Querquedula discorsj, in North America is more 

 restricted in its range than its congener, and it is altogether a more southern 

 species. It breeds as far north as Alaska and occurs sparingly at the Yukon 

 mouth, and has been seen, and eggs obtained near Cape Romanzoff. Generally 

 speaking it is not common north of latitude 62, that is north of the Great Slave 

 Lake, and in the winter retires as far south as Trinidad, Cuba, and the West 

 Indies, arriving later at its nesting quarters and retiring earlier in the autumn 

 than Q. caroiinensis, and being much more susceptible to cold than that species. 



The Blue-winged Teal is the Nearctic representative of the British Garganey, 

 and 1 1 have known this latter mistaken for it, the bluish-grey wing-coverts of Q. 

 circia being suggestive of the same part in its American cousin, but those who 

 have had opportunities of comparing the two will see at a glance how much 

 brighter and more beautiful is the blue of the transatlantic species. 



Family ANA TIDAl. 



GARGANEY. 



Querquedula circia, LINN. 



THIS beautiful little Duck is a summer visitor to Great Britain, where it is 

 generally known as the Summer- Teal and sometimes Cricket-Teal from its 

 cry. Probably at one time it had a much more extended breeding range in these 



