114 BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 
as if to assure themselves of the absence of danger, or, should there be 
cause of apprehension, to watch until it is over. They swim buoy- 
antly, and generally in a close body, at times nearly touching each 
other. Indeed, during their first appearance in autumn, when you 
are apt to meet with a flock entirely composed of young birds, you 
may, by using a little care, kill a considerable number at one shot. I 
was assured by a gunner residing at New Orleans, that as many as one 
hundred and twenty had been killed by himself at a single discharge ; 
and I myself saw a friend of mine kill eighty-four by pulling together 
the triggers of his double-barrelled gun ! 
The Blue-winged Teal is easily kept in captivity, and soon becomes 
very docile. In this state it feeds freely on coarse corn meal, and I 
have no doubt that it could readily be domesticated, in which case, so 
tender and savoury is its flesh that it would quickly put the merits of 
the widely celebrated Canvass-backed Duck in the shade. 
In the course of my stay in East Florida, at General HernanpEz’s, 
and Mr Butow’s, I have observed this Teal in company with the Red- 
breasted Snipe, the Tell-tale Godwit, and the Yellow-shank Snipe. I 
observed the same circumstance in Texas. 
During the time of their residence on the Delaware River, they 
feed principally on the seeds of the wild oats, which I also found them 
to do whilst at Green Bay. I have been assured by persons residing 
on the island of Cuba, that the Blue-winged Teal is abundant, and 
breeds there. 
The old males lose the spring plumage of the head almost entirely 
during a great portion of the autumn and winter, but it is reassumed 
sometimes as early as the beginning of January. The young of both 
sexes in their first plumage resemble the females, but the males ac- 
quire their full beauty before they are a year old. 
Anas piscors, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol i. p. 205.—Lath. Ind. Orn. vol. ii. p. 854. 
BiuE-wincep Treat, Anas piscors, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. viii. p. 74. pl. 68. 
fig. 4. Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 397. : 
Anas piscors, Ch. Bonap. Synopsis of Birds of the United States, p. 385. 
Anas piscors, BLUE-wiNnGED TraL, Richards. and Swains. Fauna Bor, Amer. vol. ii. 
p- 444. 
Adult Male. Plate CCCXIII. Fig. 1. 
es. = 
