224 
ANAS CRECCA 
the Mallard, Pintail or Shoveller and these never seem to have any difficulty in 
holding the pace. A single Teal timed by Meinertzhagen (1921) over a fixed course 
in southern Palestine, made only 44 miles per hour, which is less than the average 
for other ducks timed. Shovellers and even Spot-bills have been noted as leading 
Teal in flight (Finn, 1915). Teal fly in thick packs on short flights, and string out 
into long single or double lines when on migration. Flocks ordinarily number from 
thirty to forty individuals, but flocks of a hundred are not uncommon, and much 
greater companies are sometimes formed by the temporary union of a number of 
flocks. 
Association with other Species. Teal, particularly when in small parties, 
have no objection to associating closely with the larger surface-feeding ducks. 
Single individuals of Mallard, Pintail, etc., are very often seen flying with a flock of 
Teal. The evidence of their mixing with the Garganey is somewhat conflicting. 
Judging from the relation of the American Green-wing and Blue-wing I should not 
be surprised if they mix almost indiscriminately on the autumn migration and on 
the winter grounds. Among the larger ducks their preference is probably for the 
Mallard, due no doubt to similarity in feeding habits. 
A Teal’s nest with two Mallard’s eggs has been reported (Kriiper, 1857), but I 
have not found any evidence of Teal depositing their eggs in the nests of other 
species. In England a nest containing both Teal and Pheasant eggs was once found 
(C. E. Pearson, 1908). 
Voice. Teal are at most times of the year very silent but in the spring, during 
display, a soft single or double whistle sounding like preep or preep-preep is often 
heard. This is perhaps analogous to the whistled display-note of the Mallard. Dur- 
ing autumn and winter the males are much more silent, and if the note of the Euro- 
pean Teal is the same as that of our American Green-wing (which I assume to be 
the case), there is a grating, squeaking, snipelike call, rather different from the 
spring whistle. It has been likened to the creaking of an old Irish car wanting grease 
(W. Thompson, 1851). These notes sound quite differently at various distances and 
they have given rise to much confusion as to the calls of the two sexes. The female 
has an entirely duck-like, but weak and high-sounding quack which is also used as 
an alarm note. The quacking note is at times run together into a quegquegqueg, 
characteristic of many ducks. Both sexes will make a hissing note like that of most 
ducks when approached closely. A very peculiar sound is described by Saxby (1874) 
who heard a female Teal before being driven from her nest utter a note resembling 
the low continued croaking of a frog; she kept this up for perhaps half a minute 
before flying away. 
The trachea, as figured by Eyton (1838) and Yarrell (1884-85) is merely a minia- 
