288 
BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 
tioned regions, without paying any regard to the intermediate districts, 
which yet seem to be as well adapted for breeding in, as they afford thou- 
sands of convenient and secluded localities for that purpose. Yet these 
facts, and many others connected with Nature’s wonderful arrangements, 
we may look upon as intended to increase the innate desire which every true 
lover of Nature has to study her beautiful and marvellous works. 
Having for some years observed such habits exhibited by the Blue-winged 
Teal and other birds, I have been induced to believe in the existence of 
what I would term a double sense of migration in many species, acted upon 
both in spring and in autumn, and giving to them at the latter period, the 
power as well as the desire of removing from the higher latitudes to oppo- 
site or meridional parts, thus to enter into the formation of the Fauna of 
different countries, from which again they are instigated to return to the 
place of their nativity, and thence diverge toward new sections of the globe 
equally adapted to their wants. If these observations should prove not un- 
founded, we need no longer be surprised to meet in different portions of the 
world with species which hitherto were supposed to be inhabitants only of 
far distant shores. 
The mouths of the Mississippi, surrounded by extensive flat marshes, 
which are muddy, and in some degree periodically inundated by the over- 
flowings of that great stream, or by the tides of the Mexican Gulf, and 
having in the winter months a mildness of temperature favourable to almost 
all our species of Waders and Swimmers, may be looked upon as the great 
rendezvous of the Blue winged Teals, which are seen arriving there coast- 
l. 
ways, in autumn and the greater part of winter, to meet the multitudes that 
have travelled across the interior from the north and west. At New 
Orleans, and during spring, when this bird is in full plumage, it is called by 
the Creoles of Louisiana “ Sarcelle Printanniere and in autumn, when 
scarcely an individual can be seen retaining the beauty of its spring plumage, 
it is known as the “ Sarcelle Automniere in consequence of which double 
appellation, many persons imagine that there are two Blue-winged Teals. 
They are the first Ducks that arrive in that part of the country, frequently 
making their appearance in the beginning of September, in large flocks, 
when they are exceedingly fat. They depart, however, when the cold 
becomes so intense as to form ice ; and in this respect they differ from the 
Green-winged Teals, which brave the coldest weather of that country. 
Toward the end of February, however, they are as abundant as ever, but 
they are then poor, although their plumage is perfected, and the males are 
very beautiful. During their stay, they are seen on bayous and ponds, along 
the banks of the Mississippi, and on the large and muddy sand-bars around, 
feeding on grasses and their seeds, particularly in autumn, when they are 
