DUCKS. 



349 



of dropping suddenly again. They swim easily, but not very rapidly, and they 

 cannot dive to much purpose, so that a wounded bird, unless there are weeds near, 

 under which it can lie with only the bill above water, has, as a rule, but a poor 

 chance of escape. On the land, if the ground be fairly smooth, they walk with 

 tolerable ease ; but it is rare to see them, as one often sees the wigeon, well out on 

 the dry sward, walking for pleasure." Their chief food is of a vegetable nature, 

 but they also consume water-insects and molluscs. The common teal is usually 

 seen in India in moderate-sized parties, but occasionally in large flocks, although 

 never in the countless thousands in which the garganey sometimes congregates in 

 that country. In March, however, they associate in pairs, and then afford very 

 pretty shooting when lying on the water beneath the steep banks of the larger 

 rivers. The teal is the easiest of all ducks to net and snare ; immense numbers 

 being captured during the cold weather in India, and kept alive through the 

 summer in specially constructed " tealeries." 



The last genus of the subfamily represented in the British Isles 

 is that which includes the common wigeon (Mareca penelope), the 

 North American wigeon (M. americana), and the Chilian wigeon (M. sibilatrix) of 

 South America. These birds have a bill considerably shorter than the head, and 

 very like that of the gadwall, but with the lamellae scarcely exposed, and slightly 

 concave above. The rather long and pointed wings have the first and second 

 quills the longest ; the tail is short and pointed ; and the wing-speculum is largely 

 black, while there is a white patch on the lesser wing-coverts. In the legs, a small 

 portion of the tibia is bare, and the first toe has a small membranous lobe. The 

 male wigeon, which measures from 18 to 20 inches in length, may be recognised 

 by its chestnut head and neck, minutely spotted with green (except on the forehead 

 and top, where it is whitish), by the black and white vermiculation of the back 

 and flanks, the white on the wing-coverts, and by the wing-speculum being formed 

 by one green band bordered by two equally wide ones of black. The female is a 

 more soberly coloured bird, lacking the bright head-coloration of the male, and 

 with a greyish brown speculum. In the late summer the plumage of the male, 

 although always the brighter, approximates to that of his partner. The slightly 

 larger American wigeon, has the head and neck of the male whitish, slightly 

 speckled with black, and with a metallic green patch on the side of the head, 

 which may extend some distance down the neck ; while the female has a black 

 wing-speculum. In the Chilian wigeon the speculum is velvety black in both sexes. 

 The common wigeon is a migratory species having a distribution very similar 

 to that of the teal, breeding occasionally in the northern parts of the British 

 Islands, as well as in France, Germany, and the Danube Valley, but more generally 

 in the belt lying between the Arctic Circle and the 60th parallel. At all times 

 gregarious, these birds are even social in the breeding-season ; and whilst in the 

 British Islands principally frequenting estuaries and the neighbourhood of the 

 coast, in India they are spread over all the inland waters. Their habit of walking 

 on land near the margin of water has been already mentioned under the head of 

 the teal ; and it may be added that they differ from those birds in the facility with 

 which they dive when wounded. They breed in well-watered districts where the 

 ground is partly swampy and partly covered with low scrub; the nest being 



