284 AMERICAN GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 



before the general departure of the flocks, a cause of detention more com- 

 mon in migratory birds than people seem to be aware of. These oppor- 

 tunities, few as they were, have enabled me to see the kinds of places in 

 which the nests were found, the structure of the nest, the number, size, and 

 colour of the eggs; so that I have in so far been qualified to draw a com- 

 parison between our Green-winged Teal and that of Europe. 



The Green-wings leave the neighbourhood of New Orleans in the end of 

 February; but in the Carolinas they remain until late in March, at which 

 time also they depart from all the places between the Atlantic and the States 

 of Kentucky, Indiana, &c. Farther eastward I have seen this species as 

 late as the 9th of Ma)^, when I shot a few not far from Philadelphia. As 

 you advance farther along our coast, you find it more rare; and scarcely any 

 are met with near the shores of the British provinces. In Newfoundland 

 and Labrador, it is never seen. Its migrations southward, I am satisfied, 

 extend beyond the United States; but their extreme limits are unknown to 

 me. I have seldom seen it associate with other species, although I have 

 frequently observed individuals on a pond or river not far from other Ducks. 

 It is more shy than the Blue-winged Teal, but less so than most of our other 

 fresh-water Ducks. Its voice is seldom heard during winter, except when a 

 flock is passing over another that has alighted, when a few of the males call 

 to the voyagers, as if to invite them to join them. Before they depart, 

 however, they become noisy. Combats take place among the males; the 

 females are seen coquetting around them, and most of the birds are paired 

 before they leave us. 



In the few instances in which I found the nest of this bird, and they were 

 only three, it was not placed nearer the water than five or six yards, and I 

 should not have discovered it had I not first seen the birds swimming or 

 washing themselves near the spot. By watching them carefully I discovered 

 their landing places, and on going up found a path formed, in a direct line 

 among the rushes. In two cases I came so near the nest, as almost to touch 

 the sitting bird as it rose affrighted. While it flew round me, and then 

 alighted on the water, I viewed the nest, with perhaps more interest than I 

 have felt on most occasions of a like nature. On a scanty bed of the bird's 

 own down and feathers, supported by another of grasses, intermixed with 

 mud and stalks of the plants around, raised to the height of four or five 

 inches, I found seven eggs in one, nine in another, and only five in a third. 

 They were all found in the month of July, and not far from Green Bay. 

 The average measurement of the eggs was an inch and three quarters by an 

 inch and three-eighths. They were much rounded, of a dull yellowish 

 colour, indistinctly marked with a deeper tint, as if soiled. In one of the 

 nests only the eggs were fresh. I took two of them, which I afterwards 



