244 
ANATID^.. 
each time resolved never more to shoot them — a resolve 
always faithfully adhered to until the next tempting shot 
occurred, when the too ready inquiry, “Why should a bird not 
be eaten because it happens to be pretty ?” would rise as 
mechanically to the lips as the gun to the shoulder. 
A male shot on the 5th of May had the bill black ; the eye 
orange brovm ; tarsi and toes light olive brown, darker about 
the joints, and with indistinct yellowish stains; the membranes 
and claws nearly black. In a female killed on the 11th of 
April the upper mandible was brownish grey, the tip, including 
the unguis, black, gradually passing off towards the base in the 
form of minute dots; basal portion of the edges of the mandible, 
dull orange yellow; lower mandible of the latter colour, its tip 
black ; eye dark brown ; tarsi, feet, and claws brownish grey, 
the membranes darkest. 
An excellent description of the young Teal in its downy 
state will be found in Mr Harting’s “Birds of Middlesex,” 
at p. 233. 
About the begining of May the few pairs of Teal which 
intend to remain retire to the moors and peat bogs in the 
most secluded parts of Yell and the ]\Iainland,^ forming their 
nests either among coarse herbage or among the heather, 
always taking considerable pains to conceal them. They 
are composed of such materials as happen to be within 
easy reach, finer towards the inside, which is always lined 
with down. The number of eggs does not exceed ten. One, 
an average specimen, taken in the island of Hascosea in 1861, 
is of a rich spotless cream colour, and measures one inch ten 
lines in length by one inch five lines in breadth. When the 
young are surprised near water, they instantly plunge in and 
dive ; but should their retreat be intercepted, they hide among 
the long grass or heather, where they are very difficult to find. 
* In the island of Yell, lying between Unst and the Mainland, the thickness 
of the peat bogs on the high table-land is something extraordinary. The 
inhabitants say that in some places the bed of sound solid peat fit for fuel 
goes down as far as eighteen feet. I cannot vouch for the figures, but certainly 
I have nowhere in the north ever seen the like of it. — Ed. 
