COMMON TEAL. 
229 
Both More and Dr. Cowper make the mistake of dating 
its occurrence in the winter months. 
174. Querquedula crecca. Common Teal. 
A resident, nesting in small numbers throughout the 
county. 
Next to the mallard this is the commonest duck that 
breeds with us. Its numbers are largely augmented in 
winter by migrants. 
Gilbert White wrote in 1773 ^ — " Some young men 
went down lately to a pond on the verge of Wolmer Forest 
to hunt flappers, or wild ducks, many of which they 
caught, and, among the rest, some very minute yet well= 
fledged wild-fowls alive, which upon examination I found 
to be teals. I did not know till then that teals ever 
bred in the south of England, and was most pleased with 
the discovery ; this I look upon as a great stroke in 
natural history." 
In later years, various writers, such as Messrs. Bell, 
Harting, and Cornish, have reported the nesting of the 
teal in the same locality, but the fullest description will 
be found in Mr. Hudson's " Hampshire Days " : — 
" In Wolmer,'* he writes, " these pretty entertaining 
little ducks have bred uninterruptedly for centuries, but 
1 greatly fear that the changes now in progress — the 
increase of the population, building, the larger number 
of troops kept close by, and perhaps, too, the slow drying 
up of the marshy pools — will cause them to forsake 
their ancient haunts. By chance I very soon discovered 
' Letter xv. to Barrington. Selborne. July 8th, 1773. 
s 
