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THE GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 



Anas Crecca, Linn. 



PLATE CCXXVIII. Male add Female. 



Nothing can be more pleasing to an American sportsman, than the 

 arrival of this beautiful little duck in our Southern or Western States. 

 There, in the month of September, just as the sun sinks beneath the hori- 

 zon, you may find him standing on some mote or embankment of a rice- 

 field in Carolina, or a neck of land between two large ponds in Kentucky, 

 his gun loaded with number four, and his dog lying at his feet. He sees 

 advancing from afar, at a brisk rate, a small dark cloud, which he has 

 some minutes ago marked and pronounced to be a flock of Green-winged 

 Teals. Now he squats on his haunches ; his dog lies close ; and ere an- 

 other minute has elapsed, right over his head, but too high to be shot at, 

 pass the winged travellers. Some of them remember the place well, for 

 there they have reposed and fed before. Now they wheel, dash irregu- 

 larly through the air, sweep in a close body over the watery fields, and in 

 their course pass near the fatal spot where the gunner anxiously awaits. 

 Hark, two shots in rapid succession ! The troop is in disorder, and the dog 

 dashes through the water. Here and there lies a Teal, with its legs 

 quivering ; there, one is whirling round in the agonies of death ; some, 

 which are only winged, quickly and in silence make their way towards a 

 hiding-place, while one, with a single pellet in his head, rises perpendi- 

 cularly with uncertain beats, and falls with a splash on the water. The 

 gunner has charged his tubes, his faithful follower has brought up all 

 the game, and the frightened Teals have dressed their ranks, and flying 

 now high, now low, seem curious to see the place where their companions 

 have been left. Again they fly over the dangerous spot, and again re- 

 ceive the double shower of shot. Were it not that darkness has now set 

 in, the carnage might continue until the sportsman should no longer con- 

 sider the thinned flock worthy of his notice. In this manner, at the first 

 arrival of the Green-winged Teal in the Western Country, I have seen 

 upwards of six dozen shot by a single gunner in the course of one day. 



I have often thought that water-birds, ducks for example, like land- 

 birds which migrate in flocks, are very apt to pass over the place where 



