GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 
207 
266 . ANAS CRECCA , LINNJEUS AND WILSON. 
GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 
WILSON, PLATE LXX. FIG. IV. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
The naturalists of Europe have designated this little 
duck by the name of the American teal, as being a 
species different from their own. On an examination, 
however, of the figure and description of the European 
teal by the ingenious and accurate Bewick, and com- 
paring the'fn with the present, no difference whatever 
appears in the length, extent, colour, or markings of 
either, but what commonly occurs among individuals 
of any other tribe ; both undoubtedly belong to one and 
the same species. 
This, like the summer duck, is a fresh water fowl, 
common in our markets in autumn and winter, but 
rarely Seen here in summer. It frequents ponds, marshes, 
and the reedy shores of creeks and rivers ; is very 
abundant among the rice plantations of the Southern 
States ; flies in small parties, and feeds at night; associates 
often with the duck and mallard, feeding on the seeds 
of various kinds of grasses and water plants, and also 
on the tender leaves of vegetables. Its flesh is accounted 
excellent. 
The green-winged teal is fifteen inches in length, and 
twenty-four inches in extent ; bill, black ; irides, pale 
brown ; lower eyelid, whitish ; head, glossy reddish 
chestnut ; from the eye backwards to the nape, runs a 
broad band of rich silky green, edged above and below 
by a fine line of brownish white ; the plumage of the 
nape ends in a kind of pendent crest ; chin, blackish ; 
below the chestnut, the neck, for three quarters of an 
inch, is Avhite, beautifully crossed with circular undulating 
lines of black ; back, scapulars, and sides of the breast, 
white, thickly crossed in the same manner; breast, 
elegantly marked with roundish or heart shaped spots 
of black, on a pale vinaceous ground, variegated with 
lighter tints ; belly, white ; sides waved with undulating 
lines ; lower part of the vent-feathers, black ; sides of 
