THE MARBLED TEAL. 239 
seventy yards, like Partridges out of some of our great Norfolk 
turnip fields; here and there a Shoveller or a White-eyed 
Pochard, both of which, when disturbed, cling a good deal to 
cover, would be flushed ; but there was not one of these to ten 
of the Marbled Teal. 
This species is not amongst first class ducks for the table. 
It ranks, I should say, little above the Shoveller and the White- 
-eyed Pochard, and after obtaining a goodly array of specimens, 
we never shot it—first class Ducks, Gadwall, Mallard, and 
Pintail as well as the Pochard (Fulgula ferina) and Common 
Teal being always available. 
The flight of this species, though Teal-like, is less rapid and 
flexible, (if I may coin an expression to represent the extreme 
facility with which that species turns and twists in the air) than 
that of the Common Teal. It more nearly resembles that of 
the Garganey, but is less powerful, and less rapid even than that 
of this latter species. There is something of the Gadwall in it, but 
it wants the ease of this. It flies much lower too, and, as already 
mentioned, much more readily resettles after being disturbed. 
I have hardly ever seen them swimming in the open, and in the 
rushes they make of course slow progress. When wounded, they 
dive, but for no great distance, and then persistently hold on 
under water in any clump of rush or weed, with only their bills 
above water. I have never seen them on land ina wild state, 
but some captured birds, whose wings had been clipped, walked 
very lightly and easily ; and, though they had been but a few days 
in confinement, they were very tame and could, I should imagine, 
be easily domesticated. 
In Spain they are described as very wary, and there they seem 
to frequent open water; here they avoid this latter as a rule, 
and are, I should say, amongst the tamer of our ducks, 
Their food is very varied here. Favier says that in Tangiers 
they feed on winged insects; in Sindh the major portion of 
their food consists of leaves, shoots, rootlets, corms and seeds of 
aquatic plants, intermingled with worms, fresh-water shells, 
insects of all kinds, and their larve. I believe I found a small 
frog in the stomach of one, but it is not noted on the tickets of 
any of the specimens now in the Museum, and I cannot be quite 
sure, 
Lord Lilford, an extremely careful observer, says that they 
utter a low croaking whistle; but I am sure Iam correct in saying 
that they utter also adistinct, but rather hoarse, quack; time 
after time before a duck has been flushed, amidst the babel of 
sounds that rises in the rushes as you first begin to push through 
them on some unfrequented and unpoached broad, I have 
singled out their note and correctly foretold that in such or such 
a direction there were a lot of Marbled Teal. 
As a whole I consider them poor, rather sluggish ducks, very 
much disposed to take life easy, and in a dolce far niente style, 
