year, mulberry cuttings which will form a good hedge round the
place, and keep the sun and hot winds off the building ; but
this must he kept neatly trimmed inside, or it would interfere
with ventilation, and must not be allowed to get higher than
the caves.
Into such a building in February or March you may turn
200 Teal, some Common some Garganey, as you can get them.
A few Gadwall and Pin-tail will also do no harm, but they do
not thrive so certainly as the Teal; and the Garganey, though
very good, is not equal for the table to its smallar congener.
The Marbled Teal (Q. angustirosttis) is not worth eating, and
should you chance to obtain the Bronze Cap (Q, falcate) or the
Clucking Teal (Q. formosa,) never dream of putting them into
a tealery, but skin them carefully, and send the skins to me.
In small stations Rs. 2-8 per hundred is a fair price for
netted Teal.
Before turning the Teal in, have the place thoroughly washed
out two or three times, and cover parts, or the whole of the
flat portion, with a thin layer of sand or dry earth. The two
ends of the tank should slope down gradually, say, for two feet;
the sides may be perpendicular. The water will always remain
about two or three inches below the top, so that there will be
about seven inches water. Besides the overflow pipe there must
be a plug by which the tank can be drained to the last drop ;
and to ensure this the bottom of the tank should always be a
few inches above the surface level of the surrounding ground.
Each morning the sweeper who feeds the birds must go in and
thoroughly sluice out and cleanse the whole place. He must
begin gradually, but in less than a fortnight the ducks will all
sit chattering on one side, whilst he sluices on the other, apparently
quite unconcerned. Having cleaned the whole place,
he lets the water again into the tank, and renews the earth or
sand on the margin ; and you have only to watch the birds
after he has withdrawn, often before he has finished, to realize
how thoroughly they appreciate the clean water, &c.
For food, unhusked rice is best. It is usual to buy it just
after the rainy season, as you can then purchase several
maunds for the rupee, and store it. Give them as much as
they will eat. This you must watch yourself, never trusting the
key of the door out of your own hands. If, when the man
goes in to sweep, you find any appreciable quantity lying
about, reduce the allowance ; if, on the contrary, not a grain
is to be seen, increase it until there is some little surplus
daily apparent. Besides this, bunches of lucerne or fine green
grass should be thrown in daily. Many give onions chopped
up, others half-boiled dal in small quantities, but I found
unhusked rice and lucerne all that was required. As the hot
winds begin to blow, get screens (jhamps) of grass made to
fit all the interspaces, except those on the northern side, and
have these put up every day by 8 o'clock in the morning, and
removed in the evening. No matter when you go into it, the
tealery should always feel cool, and smell fairly sweet. If not,
there is something wrong, and you must look to it.
Thus managed you may keep Teal, not only all through the
hot weather, but right through the rains (when people generally
tell you that they become uneatable) as fat as butter, to
constitute, when worn out by the climate (as the best of us
get more or less by July) one can hardly eat anything, a
really delicious meal. I know that many a hot weather through,
the partner of my joys and cares, and myself, have dinted
alternate days on Teal and Quail without ever tiring of them.
Of course you don't want Teal before the middle of April,
and it is some expense (though comparatively little) feeding Teal
for very long before you want them, so that you should always fill
your tealery as late as the circumstances of the district permit.
These vary a great deal, and I have been in places where
the people never could catch many after the end of January,
as ah the jlu'ls dried up, and the ducks nearly deserted the
place, and others in which the heaviest takes were always
towards the end of March.
In the wild state, where not molested, they feed equally by
day and night, though no doubt at noontide they usually take
a siesta. I always, therefore, fed my Teal at sunset and sunrise.
Where habitually shot at they spend the day on some large
river or sheet of water, and feed chiefly at night, in wet fields,
swamps, and the smaller jhi'ls, changing their quarters for this
purpose about sunset, and there is no species more commonly
bagged in flight-shooting.
On the wing they are very swift. I doubt if they are
swifter than the Pin-tail, but they are more nimble, and
will often escape a Peregrine when the Pin-tail would
assuredly have been victimized. They turn and twist in the
air with a rapidity second only to the Cotton Teal, and they
have a habit after being flushed of dropping suddenly again,
which I have not noticed in our other ducks. 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 whilst " one foot on land and one on
sea" is quite the motto of their lives, the major portion of
which, if left to their own sweet wills, they pass in swampy
places half-earth, half-water, it is rare to see them as one
often sees the Wigeon, well out on the dry sward, walking for
pleasure.
Whether it be by night or day, (and that depends upon
circumstances beyond their control, poor things) their favourite