PINTAIL, OR WINTER DUCK. 387 



Germany, and proceed south as far as Italy. In the Russian 

 empire they penetrate to Kamtschatka, Tartary, and even as 

 far as China. In Missouri and some of the other Western 

 States they are abundant early in March, and frequent the 

 small pools and ponds in the prairies ; at the same time they 

 are likewise seen on their way north on the shores of the 

 Delaware. 



The Pintail is shy and cautious, feeding on the mud flats, 

 and shallow fresh-water marshes, but rarely takes to the sea 

 coast. It seldom dives, is very noisy and chattering, utter- 

 ing a quack like the Common Duck, and plunges and hides 

 with great dexterity when wounded. It is also trouble- 

 somely vigilant in giving alarm on the approach of the 

 gunner. 



The food and nest of this species is very similar with that 

 of the preceding. I have found the stomach in one in- 

 stance nearly filled with the seeds of the Zoster a. It lays 8 

 or 9 eggs of a greenish-blue color. A female Pintail bred in 

 confinement, when paired with a Widgeon, in Lord Stanley's 

 menagerie at Knowsley, sat so closely upon her eggs towards 

 the close of the period of incubation, as to allow herself to 

 be taken off the nest by hand without forsaking her hatch- 

 ing, and a brood of these hybrids were successfully reared. 



The Pintail is about 26 inches long ; the wing 10 inches 9 lines ; 

 length of the bill above, 2 inches ; the tarsus 1 inch 7 lines. In the 

 male, the head and adjoining part of the neck is anteriorly umber- 

 brown, with paler edges. The neck above blackish-brown. The 

 whole of the back, shorter scapulars, sides of the breast, and flanks 

 marked with fine waved transverse lines of brownish-white and 

 black, most regular and broadest on the long feathers lying over the 

 thighs. Long scapulars and tertiaries black, the borders of the for- 

 mer and outer webs of the latter, white. Wing coverts and prima- 

 ries hair-brown; the primary shafts white, and the interior coverts 

 mottled with the same. Speculum dark green, with purple reflec- 

 tions bounded above by a ferruginous bar, and interiorly and below 



