282 AMERICAN GREEN- WINGED TEAL. 



birds are often observed to do so; while Curlews, Cormorants, Plovers, 

 Ducks and Geese, are similar in this respect. The first object in view with 

 such species is to remove from one part of the country to another, as every 

 one knows; and as to reach a place of safety abundantly supplied with food, 

 is the next object, you may perhaps join me in concluding, that, to the spot 

 or district in which birds have once been and spent a season, they are ever 

 afterwards inclined to return. Well, the Green-wings are known to follow 

 each other in flocks, sometimes consisting of a few families, sometimes of 

 many hundred individuals, particularly in autumn, when old and young 

 leave the north to avoid the rigours of its dreary winter. In spring, again, 

 many species both of land and water birds perform their migrations, either 

 singly or in smaller groups, the males departing before the females, and in 

 some cases the young keeping by themselves, an arrangement perhaps in- 

 tended for the greater dispersion of the species. 



In Louisiana, the Green-winged Teal is named Sarcelle d'hiver, while the 

 Blue-winged species bears the name of Sarcelle (Pete, although the latter 

 remains only some weeks in that country after the departure of the former. 

 Its general name, however, is the "Green-wing;" and a poor name in my 

 opinion it is, for the bird has not more green on its wings than several other 

 species have. Indeed, very many birds are strangely named, not less in 

 pure Latin, than in English, French, and Dutch; and very many are every 

 year receiving names still stranger than those they bore. For my part, I 

 am at present a kind of conservative, and adhere to the old system until I 

 see the mud raised up by the waders subside, when I may probe my way 

 with more chance of success. 



The Green-winged Teal is a fz'esh-water bird, being rarely met with in 

 marine bays, creeks, or lagoons, where, however, it may sometimes spend a 

 few days. It is accordingly enabled to feed with its body half immersed, in 

 the manner of the Mallard and several other species, for which purpose it is 

 furnished with a comparatively long neck. Its food consists principally of 

 the seeds of grasses, which are collected either when floating or when still 

 adhering to their stalks, small acorns, fallen grapes or berries, as well as 

 aquatic insects, worms, and small snails. I have never found water lizards, 

 leeches, fishes, or even tadpoles in their gizzards. The food of this bird 

 being thus more select than that of most other Ducks, its flesh is delicious, 

 probably the best of any of its tribe; and I would readily agree with any 

 epicure in saying, that when it has fed on wild oats at Green Bay, or on 

 soaked rice in the fields of Georgia and the Carolinas, for a few weeks after 

 its arrival in those countries, it is much superior to the Canvass-back in 

 tenderness, juiciness, and flavour. Indeed, the Green-wing is as much 

 superior to the Canvass-back, as the European Quail is to the Capercailie, or 



