140 With Rod and Gun in New England 



" To my taste," said the Doctor, " the blue-winged teal is among the 

 most delicious of all the ducks." 



" Yes, a fat teal in the autumn is a delicious tit-bit. I have found it in 

 great abundance about the New England fresh-water lakes in the fall, par- 

 ticularly on the meadows at the head of Lake Umbagog in Maine. It is 

 more often found in small creeks near the seashore, than the summer duck 

 or the bald-pate, but it prefers the small fresh-water ponds and streams. It is 

 a remarkably swift-flying bird, and when startled darts away like a bullet. 

 It dislikes cold weather, and on the first signs of frost is on its way to the 

 rice-fields of the south. I have killed good bags of these delicious little 

 ducks on the fowl meadows lying between Canton and Dedham, Mass. It 

 is also pretty abundant in the ponds and streams of Plymouth county in 

 that State, and in Connecticut is a well-known species. The little green- 

 winged teal, Nettion Carolinensis, is another beautiful little species : in its 

 habits it resembles the other, but it is a smaller bird. In the water it is 

 very graceful. I have no doubt it could be domesticated, and what a 

 beautiful little creature it would be in a park or private lake. Like the 

 blue-winged teal, it subsists on seeds, aquatic plants, etc., and is of very 

 delicate flavor on the table. It remains with us longer in the autumn than 

 the other and associates in flocks, sometimes of considerable size." 



" Some of the other fresh-water ducks have a very delicately marked 

 plumage," remarked the Doctor ; " for instance, the sprigtail or pintail duck 

 I think is one of the neatest of all." 



" Yes, it is a beauty," I replied. " It is the Dafila acuta of scientists. 

 It is pretty common in New England, where it appears about the tenth of 

 September ; it is, as Wilson truly says, a shy and cautious bird, feeding on 

 the mud flats and shallow ponds of the fresh-water marshes, and it rarely 

 is seen on the seacoast. It seldom dives, and is very noisy when compared 

 with most of the other small ducks ; it comes readily to decoys, and when 

 surprised it crowds together in a compact flock, thus giving the gunner an 

 opportunity for a raking double discharge. It is called in some sections 

 the " spreet-tail," and by many sportsmen it is named the gray duck : this 

 title, however, belongs to another species." 



" I have once or twice shot a broad-billed duck, called the ' shoveller,' " 

 said the Doctor ; " it was also a handsome plumaged bird, but its wide bill 

 gave it an odd appearance." 



" It is a rather quaint looking cluck," I replied ; " the ornithologists very 

 properly have named it the Spatula clypcata. Many sportsmen call it 

 the 'spoonbill.' It is rare on our coast, only an occasional bird being 

 taken. It feeds, like the other fresh-water ducks, on various aquatic insects, 

 plants, and tadpoles. A specimen that I examined, killed in Plymouth 

 county, Mass., had its stomach filled with small pieces of aquatic roots ; 

 there were also fragments of small crustaceans. 



