THE AMERICAN TEAL. 



373 



and 00K\< times even constructing a rude nest of sticks in the forks of 

 branches. The eggs twelve or thirteen are yellowish- white, rather 

 less than those of the domestic Uen, and they are usually covered 

 wuh down, probably plucked from the breast of the parent. The 

 game tree is sometimes occupied, by the same pair, for several 

 successive years, in the breeding season. The young, when hatched, 

 are carried down in the bill of the female, and afterwards conducted 

 by her to the nearest water. To these places, when once selected, if 

 not disturbed, they sometimes show a strong predilection, and are not 

 easily induced to forsake the premises, however invaded by noise and 

 bustle. While the female is sitting, the male is usually perched on 

 some Adjoining limb of the same tree, keeping watch for their 

 common safety. The species is scarcely ever gregarious, they are 

 only seen in pairs or by families. 



The Wood Duck has sometimes been tamed, and soon becomes 

 familiar. They have even been so far domesticated as to run about 

 at large in the barn yard like ordinary fowls. In France they have 

 alao been acclimated and tamed, and have bred in this condition. 



THE AMERICAN TEAL. 



The Green- Winged Teal, as a species, is common to the northern 

 and temperate 

 parts of both con- 

 tinents. The 

 American bird 

 appears to be a 

 permanent and 

 distinct variety. 

 There is, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Rich- 

 ardson, however, 

 in the Hudson's 

 Bay Museum, a 

 specimen from 

 the fur countries 

 agreeing in all 

 respects with the 

 European species. 

 Our variety is 

 abundant to the 

 extremity of the continent, both in the woody and barren districts of 

 the remote fur countries of Hudson's Bay. It is also plentiful about 

 Severn river, in the woods and plains near fresh waters, where it 

 breeds, the young being about six or seven at a hatch. It feeds 

 much upon fresh-water insects, seeds, and aquatic plants, and when 

 fat is delicate food. In the autumn and winter it is very common 

 throughout the waters of the United States, both in the interior and 

 contiguous to the sea coast. In the course of the winter they retire 

 * far south as Jamaica aud are probably common also along the 



AMERICAN TEAL. 



