THE GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 211 



eratum for the table. West of the Rocky Mountains it is 

 replaced by its near relative, the Cinnamon Teal. 



THE GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 



Tagging after the little flock of Blue-wings at a distance 

 of a few yards, like some stray and unwelcome relative, was 

 a solitary male of the Green-winged Teal, his flight being 

 very similar, and his place of alighting only a few rods dis- 

 tant and much nearer the shore. Excepting certain aquatic 

 insects and minute mollusks, the food of this species seems 

 to be nearly terrestrial — consisting of the seeds of weeds 

 and grasses, berries and small nuts. Hence it feeds in the 

 very edge of the water, floating deeply, and plunging the 

 head and neck, and not infrequently stepping out on the 

 land, where it walks quite gracefully. In the air and on the 

 water its movements are very similar to those of the Blue- 

 wing; and, except that it is rather hardier and more north- 

 erly, reaching us somewhat later in autumn and leaving us 

 earlier in spring, its habitat and migrations are almost the 

 same. It, too, for the most part, avoids the sea and the 

 clear, rocky lake regions, preferring such flooded fields, 

 sedgy streams, ponds and lakes as bring it in contact with 

 its favorite vegetable growths, especially such bodies of 

 water as abound in the wild rice. 



Second only to the Wood Duck in beauty is the male of 

 this elegant species. Some fifteen inches long, and twenty- 

 four in extent, the head and upper part of the neck are 

 bright chestnut-brown, the throat dusky, and a patch from 

 before the eye to the nape, glossy green; the pendent crest 

 being brown above and black below; back, tail and greater 

 part of the wings, dusky; the speculum, elegant glossy 

 green, bounded with jet-black above and below; several of 

 the scapulars edged with black; epaulets white; the rest 



