232 WILD-FOWL 



The blue-wing teal are more common on the 

 marshes of the Middle States, I believe, as far west 

 as Illinois, Kansas, and Iowa. On the Sandusky 

 marshes in Ohio, a club record shows each year more 

 blue-wings are killed than green. In 1881, the totals 

 for the season were blue-wings, 1,646, green-wings, 

 441; in 1885, blue-wings, 1,019, green-wings, 506; in 

 1890, blue-wings, 603, green-wings, 373; in 1895, blue- 

 wings, 21, green-wings, 99; in 1899, blue-wings, 255, 

 green-wings, 184. In Dakota and on the Pacific Coast 

 these figures would be reversed. 



Much that has been said as to the method of capture 

 of the other ducks applies as well to teal. They come 

 well to decoys, and they are shot in the same way 

 over points. They are jumped in the wild rice and 

 shot from a moving boat. 



In the winter thousands of teal are shot in the rice- 

 fields in the South, and they are probably nowhere 

 more abundant than in Louisiana and Texas. Another 

 teal, the European teal, is given in the check-list. This 

 bird is, however, only an occasional visitor to our East- 

 ern shores, and is seldom shot by sportsmen. 



