I have seen teal “duck the flash,” though never but once, and then I had rather a slow shooting gun.
If you spring a teal, he will not soar up and leave the country like a wild duck, but most probably keep along the brook, like a sharp flying woodcock, and then drop suddenly down; but you must keep your eye on the place, as he is very apt to get up again and fly to another before he will quietly settle. He will frequently, too, swim down the stream the moment after he drops, so that if you do not quickly cast your eye that way, instead of continuing to look for him in one spot, he will probably catch sight of you and fly up, while your attention is directed to the wrong place. If the brook in which you find him is obscured by many trees, you had better direct your follower to make a large circle, and get a head of, and watch him, in case he should slily skim away down the brook, and by this means escape from you altogether. You should avoid firing at random, as this may drive him quite away from your beat.—Bewick—Hawker.
Tench, s. A small pond-fish.
The tench is generally prized as a fine rich fish in England, but it is not so much esteemed on the continent: the Germans, in derision, call it the Shoemaker. They take red worms best in the spring; and gentles, not too much scoured, or sweet paste, in the hot months. Use a fine gut-line, quill-float, and No. 9 or 10 hook; fish close to the bottom, and ground-bait with small pellets of bread, or chewed bread, or bread and bran mixed; or throw in about half-a-dozen gentles, or pieces of worms, frequently, close to your float. When the large tench take a bait, especially in still waters, they take or suck it in slowly, and generally draw the float straight down; strike immediately it disappears.
The tench will breed in rivers, lakes, and ponds, but they thrive best in those ponds where the bottom is composed of loamy clay, or mud, and in foul and weedy waters; they will sometimes bite very free all day in summer, during warm, close, dark weather, particularly while small, misty rain descends; at other times, only late in the evening, or early in the morning.—Salter.
Tendon, s. A sinew, a ligature by which the joints are moved.
Tennis, s. A play at which a ball is driven with a racket.
A tennis court is usually ninety-six or ninety-seven feet long, by thirty-three or four in breadth. A net hangs across the middle, over which the ball must be struck, to make any stroke good. At the entrance of a tennis-court there is a long covered passage before the dedans, the place where spectators usually are, into which, whenever a ball is played, it counts for a certain stroke. This long passage is divided into different apartments, which are called galleries, viz. from the line towards the dedans, is the first gallery; door, second gallery; and the last gallery, is what is called the service-side. From the dedans to the last gallery are the figures, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, each at a yard distance, marking the chaces, one of the most essential parts of this game. On the other side of the line is the first gallery; door, second gallery; and last gallery, what is called the hazard-side; every ball played into the last gallery on this side tells for a certain stroke, the same as into the dedans. Between the second and this last gallery are the figures 1, 2, marking the chaces on the hazard-side. Over this long gallery is the pent-house, on which the ball is played from the service-side to begin a set of tennis, and if the player should fail striking the ball (so as to rebound from the pent-house) over a certain line on the service-side, it is reckoned a fault; and two such faults following are counted for a stroke. If the ball pass round the pent-house, on the opposite side of the court, and fall beyond a particular described line, it is called passe, goes for nothing, and the player is to serve again.
On the right hand of the court from the dedans, a part of the wall projects more than the rest, in order to make a variety in the stroke, and render it more difficult to be returned by the adversary, and is called the tambour: the grill is the last thing on the right hand, in which if the ball be struck, it is reckoned 15, or a certain stroke.