THE TEAL, 
95 
medaragh, where, in the middle of July 1833, a relative was 
shown a nest, in boggy ground, on the summit of a high hill, and 
about a quarter of a mile from water : it contained at least a dozen 
of eggs, which were quite concealed from view, by being covered 
oyer with feathers ; — Lough Beg, adjoining Lough Neagh (on the 
eastern side), whither an acquaintance was accustomed to go in 
the season, for the purpose of shooting young wild-ducks, or 
“ flappers,” and young teal ; — Springmount, near Clough, where 
some annually breed. About Baldoyle, near Dublin, teal and 
wild ducks are said to nidify ; — also* in the county of Wex- 
ford ; at Anagh bog, between Cork and Bandon (in 1849) ;t 
in the county of Kerry, J on the islands of the Connemara 
lakes, where the young are described as “ fierce little things,” fol- 
lowing the canoe of the person who was observing them.§ On 
the 11th of June, 1842, a couple of young teal, “nearly fledged, 
except the wings,” were sent, from the Bog of Allen, to Mr. B. 
Davis, jun. (of Clonmel), who remarks, that on their being placed 
in a large vessel of water, they dived with surprising swiftness 
whenever he approached, and seemed, from their diving inces- 
santly and remaining down a long time, as much at home be- 
neath the surface, as little grebes or dabchicks ( Podiceps minor). \\ 
Teal, to the number of at least twenty pair, are considered, by the 
decoy-man, to breed in the demesne at Caledon. 
The teal is naturally the least wild of any of our Anatidce , though 
it soon learns to beware of its enemy, Man : in localities of all 
kinds, where a little water, or sometimes eyen moisture, prevails, 
we occasionally come close upon this beautiful little duck. I was 
once much interested with three teal that came to a pond at 
Wolf-hill. They were old birds (a male and two females), and, 
being at first somewhat wild, evinced that they had learned the 
evil of man's ways towards their kind. By making very gradual 
approaches — almost from day to day — towards them, taking care 
* Mr. R. J. Montgomery. f Mr. Robert Warren, jun. 
+ The late T. F. Neligan (1837). § Mr. W. M‘Calla. 
|| When at the Island of Islay, in January 1849, I learned that the teal breeds 
commonly there. 
