DUCKS. 
349 
of dropping suddenly again. They swim easily, but not very rapidly, and they 
cannot dive to much purpose, so that a wounded bird, unless there are weeds near, 
under which it can lie with only the bill above water, has, as a rule, but a poor 
chance of escape. On the land, if the ground be fairly smooth, they walk with 
tolerable ease; but it is rare to see them, as one often sees the wigeon, well out on 
the dry sward, walking for pleasure.” Their chief food is of a vegetable nature, 
but they also consume water-insects and molluscs. The common teal is usually 
seen in India in moderate-sized parties, but occasionally in large flocks, although 
never in the countless thousands in which the garganey sometimes congregates in 
that country. In March, however, they associate in pairs, and then afford very 
pretty shooting when lying on the water beneath the steep banks of the larger 
rivers. The teal is the easiest of all ducks to net and snare; immense numbers 
being captured during the cold weather in India, and kept alive through the 
summer in specially constructed “ tealeries.” 
The last genus of the subfamily represented in the British Isles 
Wigeon. . J . r 
is that which includes the common wigeon (Mareca penelope), the 
North American wigeon (M. americana), and the Chilian wigeon (if. sibilatrix) of 
South America. These birds have a bill considerably shorter than the head, and 
very like that of the gadwall, but with the lamellje scarcely exposed, and slightly 
concave above. The rather long and pointed wings have the first and second 
quills the longest; the tail is short and pointed; and the wing-speculum is largely 
black, while there is a white patch on the lesser wing-coverts. In the legs, a small 
portion of the tibia is bare, and the first toe has a small membranous lobe. The 
male wigeon, which measures from 18 to 20 inches in length, may be recognised 
by its chestnut head and neck, minutely spotted with green (except on the forehead 
and top, where it is whitish), by the black and white vermiculation of the back 
and flanks, the white on the wing-coverts, and by the wing-speculum being formed 
by one green band bordered by two equally wide ones of black. The female is a 
more soberly coloured bird, lacking the bright head-coloration of the male, and 
with a greyish brown speculum. In the late summer the plumage of the male, 
although always the brighter, approximates to that of his partner. The slightly 
larger American wigeon, has the head and neck of the male whitish, slightly 
speckled with black, and with a metallic green patch on the side of the head, 
which may extend some distance down the neck; while the female has a black 
wing-speculum. In the Chilian wigeon the speculum is velvety black in both sexes. 
The common wigeon is a migratory species having a distribution very similar 
to that of the teal, breeding occasionally in the northern parts of the British 
Islands, as well as in France, Germany, and the Danube Yalley, but more generally 
in the belt lying between the Arctic Circle and the 60th parallel. At all times 
gregarious, these birds are even social in the breeding-season; and whilst in the 
British Islands principally frequenting estuaries and the neighbourhood of the 
coast, in India they are spread over all the inland waters. Their habit of walking 
on land near the margin of water has been already mentioned under the head of 
the teal; and it may be added that they differ from those birds in the facility with 
which they dive when wounded. They breed in well-watered districts where the 
ground is partly swampy and partly covered with low scrub; the nest being 
