144 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



DAFILA ACUTA TZITZIHOA (Vieillot). 

 AMERICAN PINTAIL. 



HABITS. 



Spring. — Northward, ever northward, clearly indicated on the 

 distant sky, points the long slim figure of the pintail, in the vanguard 

 of the spring migration, wending its way toward remote and still 

 frozen shores. Vying with the mallard to be the first of the surface- 

 feeding ducks to push northward on the heels of retreating winter, 

 this hardy pioneer extends its migration to the Arctic coast of the 

 continent and occupies the widest breeding range of any North 

 American duck, throughout most of which it is universally abundant 

 and well known. 



Prof. George E. Beyer (1906) says that, in Louisiana, "winter vis- 

 itant individuals, as with similar individuals of the mallard, move 

 northward very early, probably never later than the middle of Janu- 

 ary," whereas the spring transients in that State "are the latest of 

 all the ducks except the teals and the shoveller." This accounts for 

 the two distinct fiights of pintails with which gunners are familiar. 

 Dr. F. Henry Yorke (1899) recognizes three distinct flights ; he says: 



The spring migration above the frost line commences with the first breaking up 

 of winter; the ducks follow the open pools of water to be found in sloughs, lakes, and 

 rivers, and with the yellow-leg mallard are the first of the nondivers to start for their 

 northern nesting grounds. They arrive in three distinct issues, the first leaving, in 

 bulk, at least, before the second arrives; these stay about a week before they pro- 

 ceed northward. An absence of pintails, for three or four days, generally follows 

 before the third issue puts in an appearance, which stay a week or 10 days, accord- 

 ing to the weather, then travel northward, breeding chiefly south of the Canadian 

 line. 



Mr. Edmonde S. Currier (1902) says of its arrival in Iowa: 



If the great break-up of the ice comes late in the season, as the first week in March, 

 which often happens after a severe winter, we find the eager sprigtails (Dafila acuta), 

 and the first flight of mallards coming up, and then there is a bird life worth seeing. 

 Although the number of ducks that pass here is rapidly falling off, still thousands 

 are left. 



The first flight of pintails is, with us, the greatest, and they always appear while 

 the ice is running. Several days before the ice gives way an occasional flock will 

 come up and circle around over the frozen river as if taking observations, and then 

 disappear to the south. If a rain comes before the ice goes out, and forms pools in 

 the bottom-land corn fields, they will settle in these until the rivers open, or a cold 

 wave strikes us. 



The pintail reaches its breeding grounds in northern Alaska early 

 in May and sometimes before the end of April, while winter condi- 

 tions are still prevailing. Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) says: 



One spring a small party was found about a small spring hole in the ice on the 

 seashore the first of May, while a foot of snow still covered the ground and the tem- 

 perature ranged only a few degrees above zero. As snow and ice disappear they 



