90 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



EUROPEAN TEAL {Netticm, crecca) . 



Length. — 14 inches. 



Adult Male. — Like Green-winged Teal, hut no white crescent before wing; 

 green band in chestnut of head behind the eye, bordered in front with 

 yellowish white; barring of sides and upper parts much coarser than in 

 the American species; long scapulars as well as inner secondaries creamy 

 white, black-bordered externally; these form a conspicuous white streak 

 along upper part of wing. 



Female. — Like female of the Green-winged Teal; the bars and margins of 

 the back feathers are of deeper hue; the sides of head, neck and throat 

 deep buff, and much darker than those of the American species. 



Range. — Northern part of eastern hemisphere. Occasional in North 

 America; recorded from the Aleutian Islands, California, Greenland, 

 Labrador, Nova Scotia, Maine, New York, Massachusetts, Connecti- 

 cut and Virginia. 



History. 

 The European Teal is a wanderer from the eastern hemi- 

 sphere. The following Massachusetts records seem reliable: 

 About 1855, a specimen, which was killed in Massachusetts, 

 was sent to E. A. Samuels. An adult male was taken, March 

 17, 1890, on Muskeget Island, and is now in the Brewster 

 collection. An adult male was caught in a steel trap about 

 February 20, 1896, in Sagamore, by Rev. E. E. Phillips, and 

 is also in the Brewster collection.^ Several specimens have 

 been recorded from New York. 



1 Howe, Reginald Heber, and Allen, Glover Morrill: Birds of Massachusetts, 1901, p. 52. 



