8o The Natural History of British Ducks 
Hebrides it nests and is common in winter, being particularly numerous on 
Tiree ; and in the Outer Hebrides, where several writers, who have never been 
there, report it as rare, I found it to be exceedingly common locally, especially 
in the autumn. In Ireland it breeds in every county, and great numbers 
arrive in the autumn to spend the winter, whilst Messrs. Ussher and Warren 
state that 'great flocks of flappers come down in August to some lakes and 
tidal inlets in the north of Donegal.' Teal are especially numerous on the 
decoy lake at Kellyville, the Bog of the Ring (Tullamore), Abbeyleix, and 
certain bogs in Cork and Waterford. 
The greater number of Teal that visit us in the autumn are not home- 
bred birds, but small parties following each other from North Europe ; these 
assemble in their favourite resorts in numbers until others continually arriv- 
ing push on the first comers, so that all through September, October, and 
November, there is a continuous stream of migration going and coming 
from bog to bog. When Teal first arrive in September at some favourite 
meeting ground, such as the Beauly Firth in Scotland, they do so in small 
parties, which, being weekly added to, sometimes merge into considerable 
flocks by the beginning of October, when the punt gunners sometimes make 
big shots at them. After this date they begin to split up again and work 
inland, distributing themselves in small parties over the whole of the bogs 
and mosses of the adjoining counties, where they remain the whole winter 
unless weather sufficiently cold to freeze their fresh-water haunts comes on, 
then they repair again to the firths and assemble in big packs. This is 
the general habit of the bird, namely, to be a purely fresh-water living species, 
only repairing to brackish water and tidal estuaries when driven there by 
force of circumstances. Nevertheless, both in Scotland and Ireland, I have 
seen Teal regularly repair to the open sea to rest there in safety during the 
day, when they have been unduly persecuted on the bogs near the seashore. 
Before it was drained Tents Muir on the Fifeshire coast used to be one of 
the best Teal resorts in Scotland, and after a little shooting at the beginning 
of the season the duck and Teal could be seen streaming out to sea every 
