304 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE TEAL. 



it under his girdle, and goes to the next, till he has 

 loaded himself. When he has got his quantity, 

 without ever attempting to disturb the rest of the 

 fowls on the pool, he slowly moves off again ; and in 

 this manner pays the flock a visit several times in 

 the day. This, if true, is hy no means a wholesale 

 method of duck murder, and so far to be approved of. 

 The young reader will find, in Col. Hawker's in- 

 dustrious experiences, some useful hints on wild duck 

 shooting. For our parts, we have not been without 

 our attachment to the diversion. Give us, in any 

 part of the world, in the eastern counties of our 

 own country, in France, or amid the hills of Scot- 

 land, where the tarns lie like oases among the 

 hills some far-off solitary pool, or marshy lake 

 clear water only in the centre, reeds and rushes 

 thickly bristling round there might we not hope to 

 see flappers plentiful as frogs : duck, teal, widgeon 

 who knows ? wild geese and swans from our crouch- 

 ing station : and there might we not again, amidst 

 the ducking, and diving, and gobbling, and bustle, 

 of a first arrival, do execution as of yore. 



The Teal (Anas crecca, Linn.). This, the smallest 

 of the cluck species, is also the most delicate and the 

 most esteemed. It is, unfortunately, more rare than 

 the others, but the numbers that come to this country 

 vary greatly from season to season. The teal weighs 

 about twelve ounces or more, and may measure about 

 fifteen inches in length. The male bird has the hand- 

 somest plumage, according to the received standard of 



