182 PINTAILS AND WIDGEONS. 



blackish of the upper parts is marked crosswise with brown- 

 ish-white; breast and under parts, brownish-white, marked 

 with white. 



On the still waters of this creek, sheltered on both sides 

 by the woods, this Duck is well at home, since it is emphat- 

 ically an inland species — frequenting prairie sloughs, ponds 

 and rivers, seldom reaching the sea coast and never breed- 

 ing with the Ducks of the ocean to the north. What a 

 striking object of beauty is that male, swimming with his 

 breast well immersed and his back parts thrown up, his 

 elegant tail elevated almost to the perpendicular, his long, 

 slender, swan-like neck sinuating most gracefully about him, 

 and every part of his lengthy and finely-formed body 

 marked and colored in brilliant contrasts! The Pintails, 

 four males and four females, separate from the Widgeons, 

 the one flock going to one side of the creek and the other 

 to the opposite side. The Pintails swim close together, and 

 seek their food in the shallow margins. They do not dive 

 so as to disappear, but, immersing their head and breast, 

 throw up their feet into the air. They are no doubt in 

 search of tadpoles, for which they labor with much avidity 

 in spring. As they raise their heads above water, the 

 males occasionally utter a rather soft and musical jabber, 

 wholly unlike the hoarse squak of the Mallard or the 

 Dusky Duck. Discerning no object of danger, and feeling 

 perfectly at home in this retired nook, they go ashore in the 

 edge of the woods and turn over the leaves in search of 

 snails, insects, and the beech-nuts of last year, scarcely 

 sprouted as yet. One even snaps his bill at a passing fly, 

 while another captures a drowsy, fluttering moth, just abroad 

 from his winter quarters. How finely they walk with tails 

 erect. Ah! they have taken alarm, and rise en masse on 

 wing. Were I within range of shot I might take them all 



