Pintail 47 



times on a hummock in a marsh ; it is made of grass 

 and down. The eggs, eight to ten or more, are greenish 

 or buflfy and measure 2* 14 x 1'50. 



Genus DAFILA. 



Bill shorter than, the head, exceeding the tarsus and also the middle 

 toe and claw, nearly parallel-sided and with a small nail ; neck rather 

 long ; tail of sixteen feathers, graduated for at least one-third of its 

 total length ; in the adult male when fully developed, nearly as long 

 as the wing, the two central feathers produced and pointed. 



One species only in North America. 



Pintail. Dafila acuta. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 143— Colorado Records— Aiken 72, p. 210; 

 Morrison 89, p. 164; Cooke 97, pp. 18, 55, 194; 06, p. 37 ; Henderson 

 02, p. 234 ; 09, p. 25 ; Rockwell 08, p. 155 ; Warren 09, p. 13 ; 10, p. 29. 



Description. — Male — Head and upper part of the neck and a Une 

 along the nape forming a crest, brown ; back and a patch on the flanks 

 brown, finely undulated with white ; central tail-feathers elongated, 

 pointed and black ; below, including the fore-neck and a narrow Une 

 on either side of the nape crest, white ; belly a little speckled with 

 dusky ; under tail-coverts black ; wing chiefly grey brown with a green 

 speculum narrowly bordered above by chestnut and below by white, 

 and on the sides by black ; iris brown, bill black, a little greyish on the 

 edge, legs greyish-blue. Length about 26 ; wing ll'O ; tail 8-0 ; cuhnen 

 2-2; tarsus 1-60. 



The female is brown above, speckled on the head, mottled on the 

 back with buffy and white ; below paler, almost white on the breast ; 

 sides like the back ; wing with a faint speculum of greenish between 

 two narrow bars of white ; tail about 4-5, shorter than that of the male ; 

 wing 9 '75. Young birds resemble the females. 



Distribution. — The Pintail is another widely-spread Duck with a 

 circumpolar range ; it breeds in the northern parts of the Old and 

 New Worlds. In America the breeding range is north of a Une running 

 rouglilj from Lake IVIichigan to the Pacific, and west from Lake 

 Michigan to Hudson Bay. They winter to the south as far as 

 Panama and the West Indies. 



In Colorado the Pintail is a common migrant. It is one of the earUest 

 birds in spring, and has been noticed at Loveland the first week in 

 February and at Grand Junction on February 27th (Rockwell). Except 

 for the Blue-winged Teal, Hersey and RockweU found it the most 

 abundant nesting Duck at Barr, while a few birds stay there aU the 

 winter. Warren saw a female with four one-third grown young near 



