THE TEAL. 95 



medaragli, where, in the middle of July 1833, a relative was 

 shown a nest, in boggy ground, on the summit of a liigh hill, and 

 about a quarter of a mile from water : it contained at least a dozen 

 of eggs, which were quite concealed from view, by being covered 

 over with feathers ; — Lough Beg, adjoining Lough Neagh (on the 

 eastern side), whither an acquaintance was accustomed to go in 

 the season, for the purpose of shooting young wild-ducks, or 

 " flappers," and young teal ; — Spriugmount, near Clough, where 

 some annually breed. About Baldoyle, near Dublin, teal and 

 wild ducks are said to nidify ; — also^ in the county of Wex- 

 ford; at Anagh bog, between Cork and Bandon (in 1849) ;t 

 in the county of Kerry, J on the islands of the Connemara 

 lakes, where the young are described as " fierce Httle things," fol- 

 lowing the canoe of the person who was observing them.§ On 

 the 11th of June, 1842, a couple of young teal, "nearly fledged, 

 except the wings," were sent, from the Bog of Allen, to Mr. R. 

 Davis, jun. (of Clonmel), who remarks, that on their being placed 

 in a large vessel of water, they dived with surprising swiftness 

 whenever he approached, and seemed, from their diving inces- 

 santly and remaining down a long time, as much at home be- 

 neath the surface, as little grebes or dabchicks [Podicejos minor). \\ 

 Teal, to the number of at least twenty pair, are considered, by the 

 decoy-man, to breed in the demesne at Caledon. 



The teal is naturally the least wild of any of our Anatida, though 

 it soon learns to beware of its enemy, Man : in localities of all 

 kinds, where a little water, or sometimes even moisture, prevails, 

 we occasionally come close upon this beautiful little duck. I was 

 once much interested with three teal that came to a pond at 

 Wolf-hill. They were old birds (a male and two females), and, 

 being at fii'st somewhat wild, evinced that they had learned the 

 evil of man's ways towards their kind. By making very gradual 

 approaches — almost from day to day — towards them, taking care 



* Mr. R. J. iMontgomcry. t Mr. Robert Warren, jun. 



+ The late T. F. Neligan (1837). § Mr. W. M'CaUa. 



II When at the Island of Islay, in January 1849, I learned that the teal breeds 

 commonly there. 



