AMERICAN GREEN-WINGED TEAL 
243 
Food Value. Teal are usually fat, almost always well flavored and never tough. 
Audubon thought them superior even to the Canvas-back when shot in the rice- 
fields of Georgia and the Carolinas. They certainly deserve to rank among the 
finest of the shoal-water ducks, the only disadvantage being their small size. A Teal’s 
weight is only one-quarter that of a prime Mallard and in the Boston markets 
where its price, as elsewhere, was relatively high, it used to bring from 60 to 90 
cents the pair, while the Mallard and Black Duck brought from $1.50 to $1.75 per 
pair. In the California markets in Belding’s time its value as a table duck is well 
shown by the fact that it brought from $1.50 to $1.75 the dozen (higher even than 
the Widgeon) while the Mallard brought from $2.50 to $3.00 the dozen (Grinnell, 
Bryant and Storer, 1918). 
I imagine that at times it feeds on maggots gleaned from dead fish on the salmon 
rivers of British Columbia, a habit rather common to Mallards in that region, and 
if this be the case the flesh is no doubt badly tainted. 
Hunt. Methods of hunting the Green-wing differ very little from those em- 
ployed with the Mallard and other surface-feeders. The ease with which they are 
approached and their habit of returning, make them an easy pot-shot mark for a 
not too skilful shooter, but of course when shot fairly over decoys, unless one takes 
a chance at shooting into the thick of a flock, they afford an exceedingly difficult 
mark. 
Behavior in Captivity. Instances of the breeding and laying of pinioned Green- 
wings in captivity are very rare and there is no doubt that our Teal is just as difficult 
to propagate as the Common Teal. My own experience is that they are far less apt 
to breed than the Blue-wing, but unquestionably the proposition would be much 
simplified if one could establish a local breeding stock in a region of mild, even 
climate like that of California. I have kept a few pairs from time to time but have 
never seen one even build a nest or get beyond the preliminaries of courtship, al- 
though the European Teal reared a brood for me in 1911. John A. Cox of East Brew- 
ster, Massachusetts, and Henry Cook of Woodbury, Long Island, New York, are said 
to have had some success (Job, 1915). I think the late Wilton Lockwood of Boston 
bred some on his pond at South Orleans, Massachusetts. Dr. A. E. Warren of Chico- 
pee Falls, Massachusetts, had them nest in his back yard in a city lot, under very 
unfavorable conditions but did not succeed in rearing any young. His experiences 
are so interesting that I shall quote them at length farther on. This is indeed a very 
meager showing when one considers the great numbers that must have been kept in 
parks and private collections during the past twenty-five years. 
I have no accurate data which would give an idea of their longevity. The small 
ducks are all more apt to fall prey to stray cats, rats, hawks and owls than the larger 
