UPLAND SHOOTING. 
115 
betake themselves to the fresh-water ponds, and soon become 
fat, when they afford excellent eating ; but when the ponds are 
covered with ice, they betake themselves to estuaries or inlets 
of the sea, and their flesh becomes less juicy, and assumes a 
fishy flavor. During continued frost, they collect into larger 
bodies than at any other time—a flock once alighted seeming to 
attract others, until at last hundreds of them meet, especially in 
the dawn and toward sunset. The larger the flock, however, 
the more difficult it is to approach it, for many sentinels are seen 
on the lookout, while the rest are asleep or feeding along the 
shores. Unlike the Sea Ducks, this species does not ride at an¬ 
chor, as it were, during its hours of repose.”— Audubon's Birds 
of America. 
THE BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 
Anas Discors. 
“ Male, 16.31*. Female, 15.24. 
“Breeds in Texas and Westward, Great Lakes, Fur Coun¬ 
tries, Columbia River. Very abundant in autumn and spring in 
the Middle Atlantic Districts, as well as in the interior. Abun¬ 
dant also in all the Southern States. 
“ Adult Male. 
“ Bill almost as long as the head, deeper than broad at the 
base, depressed toward the end ; its breadth nearly equal in its 
whole length, being, however, a little enlarged toward the 
rounded tip. Upper mandible with the dorsal outline at first 
sloping, then nearly straight, on the unguis decurved, the ridge 
broad and flat at the base, suddenly narrowed over the nostrils, 
broader and convex toward the end ; the sides erect at the base, 
afterward sloping and convex ; the narrow membranous mar¬ 
gins a little broader at the end. Nostrils sub-basal, near the 
ridge, rather small, elliptical, pervious. Lower mandible flat¬ 
tened, straight, with the angle very long and rather narrow, the 
