94 
ANATIM. 
were not affected elsewhere. But the decrease is only too 
general. Dublin market is much less numerously supplied from 
decoys and otherwise than formerly. A fine decoy, exclusively 
for teal, at Mountainstown, near Navan, county Meath, in 
which immense quantities were taken, has, for many years past, 
ceased to be worked. Its proprietor remarked, in 1845, that “ the 
country has been so drained and improved, that all kinds of wild- 
fowl are now very scarce, and a decoy is among the things we 
read of, rather than see.” 
On looking to the contents of the stomachs of twenty-seven 
teal, killed in the north of Ireland at various times, from late in 
autumn until the beginning of spring, I have ascertained that they 
feed chiefly on the seeds of aquatic plants of various kinds — 
among others, of rushes, duck-weed ( Lemna ), &c. — also, on other 
vegetable matter, and occasionally on insect larvae : a quantity of 
sand and gravel likewise is taken into the stomach. One bird, killed 
in February, near Donaghadee, contained six of the remarkable- 
looking rat-tailed larvae of ElopJiilus ten ax, Latr., which were quite 
fresh, so that they must have been taken alive, or very soon after 
death ; some husks, together with several grains of flax-seed, were 
also included. Audubon has remarked of the green-winged teal of 
America, which he considers the same as the European species, 
“ that being more select, or confined to vegetable food, than most 
other ducks, their flesh is delicious.” 
Sir William Jardine is of opinion, that there is no migration of 
teal to the south of Scotland ; but, to the shores and fresh-waters 
of Ireland, I feel satisfied that there must be, or, in other words, 
that the numbers which appear in winter cannot have been all 
bred in the island. The birds generally inhabiting marine loca- 
lities, as well as a proportion of those living on inland lakes, &c., 
are, probably, from higher latitudes. 
They breed in suitable localities, in all parts of Ireland, that are 
sufficiently retired, often in those resorted to for the same purpose 
by wild ducks. A few of these in the county of Antrim, and not 
far from Belfast, may be mentioned : — Lough Morne, near Car- 
rickfergus (according to Me Skimmin, some years ago) ; — Dro- 
