372 THE TEAL. 



the fact by some young teals being brought to him, which were 

 taken in a pond on the verge of Wolmer forest. It it also known 

 to breed in the mosses about Carlisle, as well as in Lan- 

 cashire, and also in several parts of Cumberland. In France, 

 where it stays throughout the year, it makes its nest in 

 April, among the rushes on the edges of ponds, and which is 

 composed of the tenderest stalks of the rushes, with the addition 

 of the pith, and a quantity of feathers. The nest is of a large 

 size, and placed on the surface of the water, so as to rise or fall 

 with it ; the eggs, to the number of from twelve to seventeen, 

 are as large as those of a pigeon, of a dirty white, marked with 

 small hazel spots : it is said to feed upon the grass and weeds 

 which grow on the edges of waters it frequents ; it will also eat 

 the seeds of the rushes, and small fish ; and the insects with 

 which all stagnant waters are so abundantly stored. The teal 

 is found to the north as high as Iceland, and is mentioned as 

 inhabiting the Caspian sea to the south, and is every where 

 deemed most excellent food. 



Hearne says, like the mallard, they are found in considerable 

 numbers near the sea coast at Hudson's bay, but are more plen- 

 tiful in the interior parts of the country, flying in such large 

 flocks, that he has often killed twelve or fourteen, and has seen 

 both English and Indians kill many more at one shot. At their 

 first arrival they are poor, but generally esteemed good eating. 

 He describes the teal as the most prolific of the water fowl at 

 Hudson's bay, having often seen the old ones swimming at the 

 head of seventeen young when not much larger than walnuts. 

 The teal remains in these parts so long as the season will permit ; 

 for in his passage from Cumberland house to York fort 1775, he, 

 as well as his Indian companions, killed them in the rivers they 

 passed through so late as the twentieth of October ; they were 

 then entirely covered with fat, delicately white, and might truly 

 be called a luxury. 



