230 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
their choicest breeding-place, not far from that dome- 
shaped, fir-crowned hill which was my principal landmark. 
This was a boggy place, thirty or forty acres in extent, 
surrounded by trees and overgrown by marsh weeds and 
grasses, and in places with rushes. Cotton grass grew 
in the drier parts, and the tufts nodding in the wind 
looked at a distance like silvery white flowers. At one 
end of the marsh there were clumps of willow and alder, 
where the reed-bunting was breeding, and the grasshopper 
warbler uttered his continuous whirring sound, which 
seemed to accord with the singing of the wind in the 
pines. At the other end there was open water, with 
patches of rushes growing in it ; and here at the water's 
edge, shaded by a small fir, I composed myself in a bed 
of heather to watch the birds." 
Then follows a most excellent description of the habits 
of this lively little bird, too long to reproduce here, but 
one of the best and truest accounts ever written, portraying 
its character in charming language that every lover of 
nature should read. 
White also gave another locality in the same neigh- 
bourhood where the teal nested. In Letter viii. to Pennant 
he writes : — " .... Bin's or Bean's pond, which is worthy 
the attention of a naturalist or a sportsman. For, being 
crowded at the upper end with willows, and with Carex 
cespitosa, it affords such a safe and pleasing shelter to wild 
ducks, teals, snipes, etc., that they breed there." 
The pond has been drained now many years, and the 
covert has almost disappeared. 
Colonel Hawker in his " Diary " has few entries about 
this bird ; on August 19th, 1822, he shot two at Long- 
parish, about which he remarks — " Teal here, in summer, 
are very rare. I marked them down while fishing ; there 
