The Blue-Winged Teal 77 
whom the expenditure of powder and shot is a matter of importance. Numbers 
are also still taken in Florida by means of the old figure of 4 trap, and these 
find a market in the coast towns of the south. 
Like the Garganey, the Blue-winged Teal is a very silent bird ; the female 
is known to utter a gentle * quack ' like the Teal, but the courtship of the male 
and its call seem to be little known, and I have had no opportunity of watch- 
ing the birds at the nuptial season. 
The Blue-winged Teal nests somewhat later than the Green-winged Teal 
and other western surface-feeders. The female makes a similar nest, and 
generally rather nearer to the water than that species; she lays from eight 
to twelve buff eggs— measurements 1-85 by 1-35 inch. The young are con- 
sequently later in their plumage, being often still incapable of flight on 
August I, yet they are the first species to migrate south. 
The Plumage of the Blue-winged Teal 
Adult Male.-—^€\g\\\, 15 ozs. Bill black; feet yellow with dusky grey 
webs. Length 16 inches ; wing 7-5 inches. Throat, forehead, and crown, 
lead-grey, and in spring has purple sheen ; in front of the eye there is a long 
crescent of white, which is very noticeable in life; cheeks and neck bluish- 
grey ; back red-brown, marked with black and bufT hoops, a little green over 
the tail ; lesser wing coverts, lapis lazuli blue ; across the wing a bar of white 
feathers, and below these secondaries of bronze green ; breast reddish buff 
edged with grey ; flanks red-buff barred with black. 
In the eclipse plumage the adult male closely resembles the female, except 
that the brilliant blue wing is always retained." This, however, in August, 
just before it is renewed, undergoes a slight lack of lustre, and at this season 
it is really most difficult to recognise the sexes. 
The young males get a blue wing at once, but not nearly so bright as 
the old birds ; and, like the Garganey, their mature plumage comes very slowly, 
there being no great change till the spring flush in April, when most of them 
