EUROPEAN TEAL 
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Maine, two (Brock, 1907; Norton, 1911); Massachusetts, three (Forbush, 1912); Connecticut, one 
(Treat, 1891); New York, several (Eaton, 1910); New Jersey, one (W. Stone, 1909); Maryland, one 
(Kirkwood, 1895); Virginia, one (Rives, 1890), besides a few other scattered records. The references 
to its occurrence in California seem to require substantiation (Grinnell, Bryant and Storer, 1918). 
Migration 
Thanks to the efforts of Mortensen (1909) and also of Thienemann (1915), we have a few results 
derived from experiments with marked birds of this species. The former marked one hundred and 
two of these birds at Fano, Denmark, in October, 1907, and from twenty-two which were reported 
within the next year or so, it appeared that some flew to Ireland, some to southwestern England, two 
to Holland, one to southern Spain, and one to northern Italy. The significant fact is that most of the 
birds evidently pass along the Atlantic coast in going south. One of Thienemann’s specimens went 
from Schleswig-Holstein, southwest also, to the mouth of the Ome in Normandy. His second record 
is far more interesting, for the bird, after being marked near Petrograd, Russia, in late June, 1912, 
was taken in late October, 1913, on the Danube in southern Hungary; that is, it flew south-south- 
west, apparently following river courses. Thomson (1921) mentions a Teal banded as a duckling in 
Inverness-shire, England, May 29, 1912, that was recaptured in County Waterford, Ireland, Febru- 
ary 5, 1914. The results with marked birds are still too meager to be of much real value, but they are 
at least suggestive. Others banded in England show an interchange with Sweden, Norway and 
Ireland while some marked as adults in Holland have been shot in England and northern France 
(Witherby, 1922; Thomson, 1921, 1923; van Oort, 1912, 1913). 
To sum up, we can now say tentatively that British-bred Teal are far less local than British- 
bred Mallards. Particularly interesting is a case which shows that a Teal reared in England does 
not necessarily return to the same region to breed, for one reared in Cumberland was recovered 
two years later in southern Norway. There are other cases (four Mallards, a Tufted Duck and two 
Sheld Ducks) which were hatched in Great Britain and were later found either nesting or summer- 
ing as adults in Scandinavia, northern Germany or northern Finland ! This has resulted in suggest- 
ing a new term, “abmigration,” to cover cases where the individual does not apparently migrate 
south in the autumn but makes a northern journey to new nesting grounds in the following 
spring (Thomson, 1923). It is, however, difficult to find out where such individuals have really 
spent the winter and whether they have actually “skipped” a southern migration. 
Concerning the dates of migration of the Common Teal I do not believe much need be said. The 
birds usually start north in early March, or possibly late February, reaching central Europe in late 
March or early April and northern Europe in May or even June (Lapland). From data at hand it 
seems that as the migration period progresses the birds linger more and more so that it takes them 
perhaps twice as long to complete the second as it does the first half of their journey north. This fact 
has led many observers to suppose the species breeds in sections where it winters, simply because the 
birds were seen as late as May on some occasions. These remarks apply to Asia as well as to Europe, 
and much the same is true as regards dates. Prjevalski’s very valuable data (Deditius, 1886) of 
migration on the Lob-nor in central Asia show that these Teal arrive on their way north as early as 
late February, and that they pass on in March. According to this observer they always come from 
the southwest, never from due south; and he adds that they always pass from northeast to southwest 
in autumn. This means that they probably do not cross the cold deserts of high Tibet in any con- 
siderable numbers, but that those which winter in Persia, Afghanistan, etc., very likely pass north- 
east through Kashmir and follow the Altin-tagh and Nan-shan Mountains to eastern China and 
Manchuria, while those which winter in eastern and southern India, Burma, etc., very probably come 
north via Yunnan and western China. As regards dates I know of nothing remarkable or note- 
worthy. As in Europe, so in southern Persia, Afghanistan and India some birds linger until May or 
