288 BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 



tioned regions, without paying any regard to the intermediate districts, 

 which yet seem to be as well adapted for breeding in, as they afford thou- 

 sands of convenient and secluded localities for that purpose. Yet these 

 facts, and many others connected with Nature's wonderful arrangements, 

 we may look upon as intended to increase the innate desire which every true 

 lover of Nature has to study her beautiful and marvellous works. 



Having for some years observed such habits exhibited by the Blue-winged 

 Teal and other birds, I have been induced to believe in the existence of 

 what I would term a doable sense of migration in many species, acted upon 

 both in spring and in autumn, and giving to them at the latter period, the 

 power as well as the desire of removing from the higher latitudes to oppo- 

 site or meridional parts, thus to enter into the formation of the Fauna of 

 different countries, from which again they are instigated to return to the 

 place of their nativity, and thence diverge toward new sections of the globe 

 equally adapted to their wants. If these observations should prove not un- 

 founded, we need no longer be surprised to meet in different portions of the 

 world with species which hitherto were supposed to be inhabitants only of 

 far distant shores. 



The mouths of the Mississippi, surrounded by extensive fiat marshes, 

 which are muddy, and in some degree periodically inundated by the over- 

 flowings of that great stream, or by the tides of the Mexican Gulf, and 

 having in the winter months a mildness of temperature favourable to almost 

 all our species of Waders and Swimmers, may be looked upon as the great 

 rendezvous of the Blue-winged Teals, which are seen arriving there coast- 

 ways, in autumn and the greater part of winter, to meet the multitudes that 

 have travelled across the interior from the north and west. At New 

 Orleans, and during spring, when this bird is in full plumage, it is called by 

 the Creoles of Louisiana "Sarcelle Printanniere;" and in autumn, when 

 scarcely an individual can be seen retaining the beauty of its spring plumage, 

 it is known as the "Sarcelle Automniere;" in consequence of which double 

 appellation, many persons imagine that there are two Blue-winged Teals. 



They are the first Ducks that arrive in that part of the country, frequently 

 making their appearance in the beginning of September, in large flocks, 

 when they are exceedingly fat. They depart, however, when the cold 

 becomes so intense as to form ice; and in this respect they differ from the 

 Green- winged Teals, which brave the coldest weather of that country. 

 Toward the end of February, however, they are as abundant as ever, but 

 they are then poor, although their plumage is perfected, and the males are 

 very beautiful. During their stay, they are seen on bayous and ponds, along 

 the banks of the Mississippi, and on the large and muddy sand-bars around, 

 feeding on grasses and their seeds, particularly in autumn, when they are 



