440 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



of the back which may often, be seen in a transition state, between the 

 mottled coloration of the female and the fine stipplino; of the male ; 

 the lower plumage is the next to change, though the broad mottled 

 plumage of the lower flanks is often retained for some time and finally 

 the dark head and white neck of the adult male is assumed. 



Young females are very thickly speckled and mottled on the lower 

 surface. 



Young birds of both sexes appear to have legs and bills a uniform- 

 dark dusky. 



" Young in doion have the same pale spots on the upjier parts as those 

 of the Mallard, but the white on the throat and belly is slightly sufiused 

 with grey instead of bui^, and in addition to the dark line passing 

 through the eye, a second line passes from the lores below the eye to 

 the nape" (Seebohm). 



Salvadori gives the habitat thus : " Northern Hemisphere, breeding 

 in the Northern parts and migrating Southwards to Northern Africa, 

 India, Ceylon, China, and Japan and in America as far as Panama 

 and Cuba." 



There is practically no portion of the Indian Empire which the 

 Pintail does not visit, Hume excluded it from South Tenasserim, but it 

 has now been recorded thence more than once though it appears to be 

 very rare thei'e. Davidson reported it as rare in the Deccan (some 

 writers have found it less rare than he did), and Vidal says : "Pintails are 

 to be seen in some years in small parties in the large Duck ground at 

 the junction of the Vashishti and Fagbudi rivers (South Konkan), but 

 the}' come late and go early." 



Taken all round the Pintail is one of the most common of Indian 

 ducks, occurring sometimes in huge flocks but more often in such as 

 nun)ber forty to sixty individuals. It is but rarely very small flocks 

 are seen and solitary birds or pairs hardly ever. 



Where they are least common, flocks of only twenty or so may be 

 met with frequently, but this is about the minimum number. As 

 regards the maximum number, it is hard to give figures, but Hume talks 

 of thousands in a flock ; other writer's of many hundreds. I have 

 myself, both in Bengal and Assam, seen flocks. which must have con- 

 tained three to five hundred birds, although such are not of common 

 occurrence. G. Keid in his " Birds of the Lucknow Civil Division" 



