THE GEEEN-WINGED TEAL. 



ward with a short, sudden twist among the reeds or 

 rushy covert, exactly after the fashion of the same bird. 



The commoner and, in our opinion where these birds 

 are abundant either along the courses of winding drains 

 or streamlets, or in large reedy marshes, with wet -soil 

 and occasional pools or splashes far the more exciting 

 way of killing them is to go carefully and warily on foot, 

 with a good medium-sized double-gun, say of eight to ten 

 pounds weight, and a thoroughly well broke and steady 

 spaniel, to retrieve and occasionally to flush the birds, 

 which will sometimes, though rarely, lie very hard. A 

 good sportsman will frequently, thus late in the autumn, 

 when the mornings are sharp and biting, and the noons 

 warm and hazy, but before the ice makes, pick up, on 

 favorable ground, his eight or nine couple in a day's 

 walking, with a chance of picking up at the same time a 

 few Snipe, Golden Plovers, Curlew, or God wit; and this, 

 in our mind, is equal to slaughtering a boat load by 

 sneaking up in ambush to within twenty yards of a great 

 company, whistling to make them lift their heads and 

 ruffle up their loosened plumage, so as to give easy 

 entrance to the shot, and then pouring into them at half 

 point-blank range, a half pound of heavy shot. 



"In the southern States they are commonly taken," 

 says Wilson, in " vast numbers, in traps placed on the 

 small dry eminences that here and there rise above the 

 water of the inundated rice-fields. These places are 

 strewed with ' rice, and by the common contrivance 

 1.1 



