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TEAL (O.E. tele)
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See also:TEAL (O.E. tele) , a variety of See also:duck, whose name is of uncertain origin, but doubtless cognate with the Dutch Taling (formerly Talingh and Telingh), and this apparently with the Scandinavian Atteling-And (Brunnich, Ornithol. Borealis, p. 18) and Atling. It seems impossible not to connect the latter with the Scottish Atteile or Atteal, to be found in many old records, though this last word (however it be spelt) is generally used in See also:conjunction with teal, as if to mean a different See also:kind of See also:bird; and commentators have shown a marvellous ineptitude in surmising what that bird was.
The Teal is the Anas crecca of See also:Linnaeus, Nettion crecca of See also:modern See also:ornithology, and the smallest of the See also:European Anatidae, as well as one of the most abundant and highly esteemed for the table. It breeds in many parts of the See also:British Islands, making its See also:nest in places very like those chosen by the See also:Wild Duck, A. boscas; but there is no doubt that by far the greater number of those that are taken in decoys, or are shot, during the autumn and See also:winter are of See also:foreign origin. While the See also:female presents the usual inconspicuous mottled plumage of the same See also:sex in most See also:species of Anatinae, the male is one of the handsomest of his kind. His deep See also:chestnut See also:head and See also:throat are diversified on either See also:side by a See also:line of See also:buff, which, springing from the gape, runs upward to the See also:eye, in front of which it forms a See also:fork, one prong passing backward above and the other below, enclosing a dark glossy-See also:green patch, and both losing themselves in the elongated feathers of the See also:hind-head and nape. The back and sides of the See also:body appear to be See also:grey, an effect produced by delicate transverse pencillings of See also:black on a dull See also: The teal inhabits almost the whole of See also:Europe and See also:Asia,—from See also:Iceland to See also:Japan,—in winter visiting See also:Northern See also:Africa and See also:India. It occasionally occurs on the western shores of the See also:Atlantic; but its See also:place in See also:North See also:America is taken by its representative, A. carolinensis, the male of which is easily to be recognized by the See also:absence of the upper buff line on the side of the head and of the white scapular stripe, while he presents a whitish crescentic See also:bar on the sides of the lower See also:neck just in front of the wings. Species chore or less allied to these two are found in most other parts of the See also:world, and among such species are some (for instance, the N. gibberifrons of the Australian region) in which the male wears the same inconspicuous plumage as the female. But the determination of the birds which should be technically considered " Teals," and belong to the genus Nettion, as distinguished from other See also:groups of Anatinae, is a task not yet success-fully attempted, and much confusion has been caused by associating with them such species as the Garganey (q.v.) and its See also:allies of the See also:group Querquedula. Others again have not yet been discriminated from the Wigeons (q.v.), the Pintail-Ducks, Dafila, or even from the typical See also:form of Anas (see DUCK), into each of which genera the Teals seem to pass without any See also:great break. In See also:ordinary talk " Teal " seems to stand for any Duck-like bird of small size, and in that sense the word is often applied to the members of the genus Nettopus, though some systematists will have it that they are properly Geese. In the same loose sense the word is often applied to the two most beautiful of the See also:family Anatidae, belonging to the genus Aex (commonly misspelt See also:Aix)—the Carolina Duck of North America, Ae. sponsa (not to be confounded with the above-named Anas carolinensisor Nettion carolinense), and the See also:Mandarin-Duck of See also:China, Ae. galericulata. Hardly less showy than these are the two species of the subgenus Eunetta, the Falcated Duck, E. falcata, and the See also:Baikal Teal, E. See also:Formosa, both from Eastern Asia, but occasionally appearing in Europe. Some British authors have referred to the latter of these well-marked species certain Ducks that from See also:time to time occur, but they are doubtless hybrids, though the See also:secret of their parentage may be unknown; and in this way a so-called Bimaculated Duck, Anas bimaculata, was for many years erroneously admitted as a See also:good species to the British See also:list, but of See also:late this has been properly discarded. (A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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