510 



LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS — ANSERES. 



their nest on the edge of the pond, and reared a large brood. The young were per- 

 fectly domesticated, and made no attempt to fly away, even though their wings were 

 perfect. 



This species, as Professor Kuiulicu informs me, occurs both in the spring and fall 

 at Lake Koskonong, but is rather rare. He has a mounted specimen shot ISTov. 14th, 

 1874. He has never seen it there in summer, but has met with it in spring in marshes 

 covered with water, and in the fall on the mud-bars and among the wild rice. It is 

 very seldom seen far from the shore. Mr. B. F. Goss, of Pewaukee, Wis., writes me 

 that it breeds rarely in his vicinity. About May 24, 1868, he spent several days on 

 an island in Horicon Lake, where the Gadwall had just begun to lay. He found 

 three nests, two containing one, and one three eggs. The nests did not differ in their 

 construction from the jNIallard's, but were more concealed, all of them being in thick 

 cover, one perhaps ten feet from the water, the farthest about three rods. Tlie eggs 

 were smaller and lighter colored than the Mallard's. It was found breeding on Shoal 

 Lake in 1865 by Mr. Donald Gunn, and at New Westminster by Mr. H. W. Elliott. 

 Dr. Kennerly speaks of finding it very common in April in the vicinity of Janos Kiver, 

 Chihuahua, going in large flocks. Beyond that point it was not observed. 



Eggs of this species in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution (No. 12723) 

 from Shoal Lake are of a uniform cream-color, and range from 2.05 inches in length 

 to 2.20 inches, and from 1.45 to 1.55 inches in breadth. 



Genus DAFILA, Stephens. 



Dafila, Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool. XII. ii. 1824, 126 (tyj^e, Anas acuta, Linn.). 

 Phasianurus, Wagl. Isis, 1832, 1235 (same type). 



Char. Bill longer than the head, narrow, the edges parallel, deep through the base, but other- 

 wise much depressed, the basal portion of the culmen much ascending. In the male, the scapulars, 

 tertials, and middle rectrices lanceolate, the latter elongated considerably beyond the other tail- 



D. acuta. 



feathers. The adult male in winter plumage very different from the adult female, but the sexes 

 much alike in summer. 



As defined above, the genus Dafila includes but a single species, the D. acuta, or Common Pin- 

 tail, of the northern hemisphere. Several South American species have been referred to it ; but 



