TEAL. NATATORES. QUERQUEDULA. 319 



the present species the bill becomes rather broader in pro- 

 portion to its length than in the Teal and Pintail, and the 

 points of the lamellae are just visible below the margins of 

 the upper mandible, shewing an advance towards the Blue- 

 winged Teal of America, in which species they protrude far- 

 ther than in any of the genus, connecting it with the Gad- 

 walls and Ducks. In the form and position of the tracheal 

 labyrinth it also differs considerably from the Teal ; for, in- 

 stead of this appearing as a globular appendage on the left 

 side of the lower larynx, as in that and other species of the 

 present family, it is placed perpendicular to the tracheal 

 tube, of which it looks not unlike a continuation. It is also 

 of considerable size, and divided on its anterior face by a 

 slight furrow into two unequal portions; and the bronchi 

 spring from the upper part of its dorsal aspect. The diame- 

 ter of the tracheal tube is, moreover, much greater through- 

 out its whole length, being nearly equal to that of the Mal- 

 lard, and widening to a great degree immediately before its 

 junction with the ampulla. This is by no means a common 

 species in Britain ; and though stated to be a winter visit- 

 ant, I never met with it, except in the months of April and 

 May, when it is killed in Norfolk and other eastern parts of 

 the island, and sent to the London market. The above is 

 the period of its migratory flight towards its summer, or 

 breeding, quarters; and the few that visit us are probably 

 driven out of their direct course, which lies more to the Occasional 

 eastward. I have not been able to ascertain satisfactorily vlsltant 

 whether any of these visitants remain and breed here ; nor 

 do any of our writers expressly state that fact, though 

 MONTAGU and FLEMING hint at its probability. In the 

 north of England it is a bird of great rarity, not a single 

 instance of its capture having come within my experience ; 

 and this would be a remarkable circumstance, if, as Low 

 states in his " Fauna Orcadensis? it abounds in the bays 

 and on the lakes of those islands. But as he confesses that 

 he was never able to procure a specimen for inspection, and 



