ANATINJE. QUERQUEDULA. 167 



The males have the scapulars, inner secondaries, and tail- 

 feathers, more elongated and acuminate than the females, 

 from which they also differ in having the colours of the 

 plumage more varied. They frequent marshes, lakes, and 

 rivers ; feed on vegetable substances, mollusca, insects, 

 worms, and other small animals ; walk well, swim with ease, 

 seldom dive, fly with great rapidity ; nestle on the ground, 

 laying numerous white or whitish eggs ; and are highly 

 esteemed as food. 



246. QUERQUEDULA CRECCA. EUROPEAN TEAL. 



Male with the bill an inch and a half long, seven-twelfths 

 broad toward the end, black ; a longitudinal ridge of narrow 

 decurved feathers on the head and nape; head arid upper 

 neck chestnut-brown, with a green patch behind the eye, 

 margined beneath with black and white ; upper parts and 

 sides finely undulated with dusky and white ; scapulars part- 

 ly grey, yellowish-white, and black ; speculum black exter- 

 nally, green internally, edged with black ; tips of secondary 

 coverts yellowish-white ; fore-neck and part of breast yel- 

 lowish-white, with black spots, the rest of the breast white ; 

 abdomen undulated ; under the tail, a black and two cream- 

 coloured patches. Female smaller, with the throat white ; 

 the upper parts and neck dusky-brown, the feathers edged 

 with pale reddish ; breast and abdomen yellowish-white ; 

 speculum as in the male. 



Male, 14A, 24, 7, 11, 1 T V> 1 T V & Fem ^ le > 13J, 22. 



This beautiful and active species, the smallest British bird 

 of its family, frequents marshy places, the margins of lakes 

 and rivers, seldom betaking itself to estuaries, or to the open 

 sea-coast, unless in time of frost. Its food consists of seeds 

 of grasses, slender roots, insects, mollusca, and worms. In 

 winter its numbers are greatly augmented by individuals 

 from the continent, and it is generally dispersed, although 

 not common in the northern parts of Scotland. Its flesh is 

 highly esteemed, and is perhaps superior to that of any other 

 British duck. The nest is placed on the ground, and lined 

 with down. The eggs, eight or ten, are yellowish-white, an 

 inch and three-fourths in length, an inch and a third in 

 breadth. 



Common Teal. Green-winged Teal. 



Anas Crecca, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 204. Anas Crecca, Lath. 

 Ind. Ornith. ii. 872. Anas Crecca, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. 



