CBU 
BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 
ANAS DIscors, Linn. 
PLATE CCCXIII. Mate ann FEMALE. 
Is it not strange, Reader, that birds which are known to be abun- 
dant on the Saskatchewan River during the breeding season, and 
which have been observed as far north as the 57th parallel, should also 
be found breeding at nearly the same period in Texas? Stranger still 
it is that species should proceed from certain points, or winter quarters, 
to both of the above-mentioned regions, without paying any regard to 
the intermediate districts, which yet seem to be as well adapted for 
breeding in, as they afford thousands of convenient and secluded loca- 
lities for that purpose. Yet these facts, and many others connected 
with Nature’s wonderful arrangements, we may look upon as intended 
_ to increase the innate desire which every true lover of Nature has to 
study her beautiful and marvellous works. 
Having for some years observed such habits exhibited by the Blue- 
winged Teal and other birds, I have been induced to believe in the 
existence of what I would term a double sense of migration in many 
species, acted upon both in spring and in autumn, and giving to them 
at the latter period, the power as well as the desire of removing 
from the higher latitudes to opposite or meridional parts, thus to enter 
into the formation of the Fauna of different countries, from which 
again they are instigated to return to the place of their nativity, and 
thence diverge toward new sections of the globe equally adapted to 
their wants. If these observations should prove not unfounded, we 
need no longer be surprised to meet in different portions of the world 
with species which hitherto were supposed to be inhabitants only of far 
distant shores. 
The mouths of the Mississippi, surrounded by extensive flat marshes, 
which are muddy, and in some degree periodically inundated by the 
overflowings of that great stream, or by the tides of the Mexican Gulf, 
and having in the winter months a mildness of temperature favourable 
to almost all our species of Waders and Swimmers, may be looked upon 
as the great rendezvous of the Blue-winged Teals, which are seen ar- 
