TEAL. 235 



The hoopers are, at certain times, easier of access 

 than some other wild birds ; and if, when flying, they 

 are fired at directly under the hollow of the wing, or, 

 when swimming, through the head, they may be stopped, 

 at a reasonable distance, with a common double gun 

 and small shot ; perhaps even farther than other wild- 

 fowl, as, when struck in the body, they become helpless 

 from their weight, and their heads are less likely to 

 escape between the shot than those of smaller fowl. 

 But if, through eagerness, you happen to fire carelessly 

 at their upper coverts, you may as well try to penetrate 

 a woolpack, unless you have very heavy shot, or a ball. 

 But more about hoopers-shooting when we get afloat. 

 Since the last edition, I tasted a hooper that had been 

 kept three weeks, then hung up, with some onions in 

 him, and buried for several hours. It was one that I 

 gave my skipper, Read ; and he, not being able to 

 find a, customer for it, reserved this bird for what he 

 called his " Sunday's blow-out." He sent me a piece 

 to try, and really it was very good. I conclude, there- 

 fore, that a chef with half the genius of Mr. Ude would 

 make a hooper go down as well as a haunch of venison. 



* TEAL. Anas crecca La petite sarcelle. 



As a brood of teal, including the old ones, usually 

 amounts to no more than six or seven, they are most 

 commonly seen in very small numbers ; unless they have 

 collected on decoy ponds, and are driven from them by 

 hard frosts, when they will appear on the adjoining 

 rivers, in flocks of twenty or thirty together. 



Of all the prizes that a wildfowl shooter could wish 

 to meet with, a flock of teal is the very first. Inde- 

 pendently of their being by far the best birds of the ivhole 



