S71 



WILD DUCK. 



See page 58. 



THE TEAL 



is one of the most delicate birds that graces our tables, and has 

 been sold for seven, and frequently sells for five, shillings A 

 couple. 



The male teal weighs about twelve ounces, the female nine ; 

 the length is fourteen inches, the breadth twenty-three ; the bill 

 is a dark lead colour, tipped with black ; irides ,pale hazel ; from 

 the bill to the hindpart of the head is a broad bar of glossy 

 changeable green, bounded on the under part with a cream-co- 

 loured white line, and edged on the upper side with pale brown ; 

 the rest of the head and the upper part of the neck are of a deep 

 reddish chesnut ; forepart of the neck and breast dusky white, 

 marked with roundish black spots ; belly white, middle of the vent 

 black ; the wing coverts brown, quills dusky ; the exterior webs 

 of the lesser marked with a vivid green spot ; above that another 

 of black, and edged with white ; the legs dirty lead colour. The 

 female is of a brownish ash-colour ; the lower part of the neck, 

 and sides over the wing, brown, edged with white ; the wing has 

 a green spot like the male ; the belly and vent both white. 



It was at no very remote period supposed not to breed in Eng- 

 land ; but Mr. White, in his history of Selborne, has established 



