PINTAIL TEAL. 67 



The plumage is close, soft, and blended. The feathers on 

 the head and upper neck short, somewhat velvety ; on the 

 occiput and scape a little elongated ; on the other parts 

 moderate, ovate or oblong. The scapulars are much elon- 

 gated, tapering, and pointed. The wing is rather long, 

 narrow, and pointed, with twenty-five quills ; the primaries 

 little curved, tapering ; the first two-twelfths longer than the 

 second, the rest rapidly decreasing ; the outer secondaries 

 broad, incurved, and obliquely rounded, the inner elongated 

 and tapering. The tail, although small, is rather long, on 

 account of the extent of the two middle tapering and 

 pointed feathers, which exceed the next by an inch and a 

 quarter, and then the next by ten-twelfths, while the lateral 

 feathers are two inches and a half shorter than the longest. 

 The tail is thus cuneato-acuminate, and consists of sixteen 

 feathers. 



The bill is black, but with the sides pale blue imder the 

 nostrils. The eyes reddish-orange. The feet greyish-black. 

 The head and upper part of the neck, laterally and anteriorly, 

 are dusky-brown, the upper part of the head lighter, and the 

 feathers behind the eyes glossed with purplish-red and pale 

 green. From the nape for three inches down the middle of 

 the neck, a band of brownish-black, tinged with green, and 

 on each side of it a line of white, continuous with that of the 

 fore part and sides of the neck and breast. The lower hind 

 part and sides of the neck delicately undulated transversely 

 with grey and white lines, as are the sides of the body ; the 

 hind part of the back brownish-grey, with faint undulations ; 

 most of the tail-coverts greenish-black on the outer, and 

 white on the inner webs. The tail-feathers grey, narrowly 

 edged with greyish-white, the tint becoming deeper toward 

 the two middle, which are brownish-black. The elongated 

 scapulars are velvet-black, edged toward the end with yellow- 

 ish white. The smaller wing-coverts are light bluish-grey, 

 the outer secondary coverts tipped with light red. The 

 primary quills and coverts light greyish-brown, with Avhite 

 shafts ; the outer secondaries black, tipped with white, and 

 eight of them bronzed green on the outer Aveb ; the inner are 

 black in the middle, and edged with grey or broMU. The 



