150 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



complete the first plumage varies greatly in different individuals, but 

 the sequence in which it appears is uniform. 



Mr. J, G. Millais (1902) says of the sequence of plumages to 

 maturity: 



When in first plumage the young male and female are exceedingly like one an- 

 other, especially at the commencement of this period; they also resemble the mother 

 to a certain extent, but from her they can be easily distinguished by the small spots 

 which cover the breast and belly, and the narrow brown edge of the feathers on the 

 back and scapulars. The young male pintail, however, like the young mallard 

 drake, almosr as soon as he has assumed his first dress commences to color change in 

 the back and scapulars. A gray tinge suffuses the brown plumage and slight reticu- 

 lations appear on the feathers themselves, rendering it easy to notice the difference 

 between him and the young female. He is also somewhat larger. By the middle of 

 September the usual molt and the more advanced feather changes commence, and 

 sometimes, in birds in a high state of condition, advance so rapidly, that young drakes 

 of the year may attain the full plumage of the adult drake by the beginning of Dec- 

 ember. Most of them, however, retain a considerable proportion of the brown plu- 

 mage until February, when the spring flush finishes off the dress. Even then young 

 pintail drakes are not nearly so brilliant as 2 or 3 year old birds, and often show their 

 youthfulness by their shorter tail, dull coloring on the head, and reticulated black 

 bars traversing the white stripes on either side of the neck. 



There is considerable individual variation in the length of time re- 

 quired by young birds to throw off the last signs of immaturity, but 

 old and young birds become practically indistinguishable before the 

 first eclipse plumage is assumed and entirely so after it is discarded. 

 Some male pintails begin to show the first spotted feathers of the 

 eclipse plumage early in Jime and during July the molt progresses 

 rapidly and uniformly over the whole body, head, and neck until the 

 full eclipse is complete in August, and the males are indistinguishable 

 from females except by the wings and the difference in size. The 

 wings are molted only once, of course, in August; and, after the 

 flight feathers are fully grown, early in September, the second molt 

 into the adult winter begins; this molt is usually not completed until 

 November or December, the time varying with different individuals. 

 I have never detected any signs of a spring molt in male pintails, 

 but Mr. Millais calls attention to the fact that females which have 

 pure white breasts in the winter become more or less spotted during 

 the nesting season. 



Food. — The pintail is a surface feeder, dipping below the surface 

 only with the fore part of its body, with its tail in the air, maintain- 

 ing its balance by paddling with its feet, while its long neck is reach- 

 ing for its food. Here it feeds on the bulbous roots and tender shoots 

 of a great variety of water plants, as well as their seeds; it also finds 

 some animal food such as minnows, crawfish, tadpoles, leeches, worms, 

 snails, insects, and larvae. Dr. F. Henry Yorke (1899) states that it 

 feeds on wheat, barley, buckwheat, and Indian corn. Audubon (1840) 

 says of its animal food : 



