402 TEAL. 
This is by no means one of the least handsome of its tribe ; the rich glossy 
green of the head and neck, the snowy white collar, and the velvet black of 
the odd little curly feathers of the tail, giving it a bold and stuking 
appearance, which, but for its familiarity, would receive greater-admiration 
than it at present obtains. It is the stock from which descended our well-known 
domestic Duck, to which we are so much indebted for its flesh and its eggs. 
In its wild state the Mallard arrives in this country about October, 
assembling in large flocks, and is immediately persecuted in every way that 
the ingenuity of man can devise. 
The nest of the Mallard is made of grass, lined and mixed with down, and 
is almost always placed on the ground near water, and sheltered by reeds, 
osiers, or other aquatic plants. Sometimes, however, the nest is placed in a 
more inland spot, and it now and then happens that a Duck of more than 
usual eccentricity builds her nest in a tree at some elevation from the ground, 
so that, when her young are hatched, she is driven to exert all her ingenuity 
in conveying them safely from their lofty cradle to the ground or the water. 
Such a nest has been observed in an oak-tree twenty-five feet from the 
ground, and at Heath Wood, near Chesterfield, one of these birds usurped 
TEAL.—(Querquedula Crecca.) 
possession of a deserted crow’s nest in an oak-tree. Many similar instances 
are on record. 
The eggs of the Mallard are numerous, but variable, according to the indi- 
vidual which lays them, some being far more prolific than others. The eggs 
are rather large, and of a greenish white colour. 
THE pretty little TEAL is the smallest and one of the most valuable of the 
British Ducks, its flesh being peculiarly delicate and its numbers plentiful, 
IN the southern parts of England the EIDER DUCK is only a winter visi- 
tant, but remains throughout the year in the more northern portions of our 
island, and in the north of Scotland, 
This bird is widely celebrated on account of the exquisitely soft and bright 
down which the parent plucks from its breast and lays over the eggs during 
the process of incubation. Taking these nests is with some a regular 
business, not devoid of risk, on account of the precipitous localities in which 
. 
