GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 207 



266. ANAS CRECCA, LINN^US AND WILSON. 



GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 

 WILSON, PLATE LXX. FIG. IV EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 



THE naturalists of Europe have designated this little 

 duck by the name of the American teal, as being a 

 species different from their own. On an examination, 

 however, of the figure and description of the European 

 teal by the ingenious and accurate Bewick, and com- 

 paring them with the present, no difference whatever 

 appears in the length, extent, colour, or markings of 

 either, but what commonly occurs among individuals 

 of any other tribe ; both undoubtedly belong to one and 

 the same species. 



This, like the summer duck, is a fresh >vater fowl, 

 common in our markets in autumn and winter, but 

 rarely seen here in summer. It frequents ponds, marshes, 

 and the reedy shores of creeks and rivers ; is very 

 abundant among the rice plantations of the Southern 

 States; flies in small parties, and feeds at night; associates 

 often with the duck and mallard, feeding on the seeds 

 of various kinds of grasses and water plants, and also 

 on the tender leaves of vegetables. Its flesh is accounted 

 excellent. 



The green-winged teal is fifteen inches in length, and 

 twenty-four inches in extent ; bill, black ; irides, pale 

 brown ; lower eyelid, whitish ; head, glossy reddish 

 chestnut ; from the eye backwards to the nape, runs a 

 broad band of rich silky green, edged above and below 

 by a fine line of brownish white ; the plumage of the 

 nape ends in a kind of pendent crest ; chin, blackish ; 

 below the chestnut, the neck, for three quarters of an 

 Inch, is white, beautifully crossed with circular undulating 

 lines of black ; back, scapulars, and sides of the breast, 

 white, thickly crossed in the same manner; breast, 

 elegantly marked with roundish or heart shaped spots 

 of black, on a pale vinaceous ground, variegated with 

 lighter tints; belly, white; sides waved with undulating 

 lines ; lower part of the vent-feathers, black ; sides of 



