TEAL. NATATORES. QUERQUEDULA. 319 
the present species the bill becomes rather broader in pro- 
portion to its length than in the Teal and Pintail, and the 
points of the lamella are just visible below the margins of 
the upper mandible, shewing an advance towards the Blue- 
winged Teal of America, in which species they protrude far- 
ther than in any of the genus, connecting it with the Gad- 
walls and Ducks. In the form and position of the tracheal 
labyrinth it also differs considerably from the Teal; for, in- 
stead of this appearing as a globular appendage on the left 
side of the lower larynx, as in that and other species of the 
present family, it is placed perpendicular to the tracheal 
tube, of which it looks not unlike a continuation. It is also 
of considerable size, and divided on its anterior face by a 
slight furrow into two unequal portions; and the bronchi 
spring from the upper part of its dorsal aspect. The diame- 
ter of the tracheal tube is, moreover, much greater through- 
out its whole length, being nearly equal to that of the Mal- 
lard, and widening to a great degree immediately before its 
junction with the ampulla.—This is by no means a common 
species in Britain; and though stated to be a winter visit- 
ant, I never met with it, except in the months of April and 
May, when it is killed in Norfolk and other eastern parts of 
the island, and sent to the London market. The above is 
the period of its migratory flight towards its summer, or 
breeding, quarters; and the few that visit us are probably 
driven out of their direct course, which lies more to the Occasional 
eastward. I have not been able to ascertain satisfactorily Visine 
whether any of these visitants remain and breed here ; nor 
do any of our writers expressly state that fact, though 
Monracu and Fiemine hint at its probability. In the 
north of England it is a bird of great rarity, not a single 
instance of its capture having come within my experience ; 
and this would be a remarkable circumstance, if, as Low 
states in his “ Fauna Orcadensis,” it abounds in the bays 
and on the lakes of those islands. But as he confesses that 
he was never able to procure a specimen for inspection, and 
