ANATID/E. 



429 







THE PINTAIL. 



Dafila acuta (Linnaeus). 



This slender and elegant Duck — locally known from the length 

 of its tail as the " Sea Pheasant " — is a regular visitor to Great 

 Britain, from September onwards. In the northern districts it 

 seldom lingers long, while its numbers on the east coast are subject 

 to considerable variation, and on the west it is rather uncommon ; 

 its principal resorts being our southern shores and estuaries, though 

 its appearance on inland waters is not unusual. As a rule the 

 Pintail leaves us in April ; but in the east of Scotland it has now 

 estabhshed itself as a breeding-species, six or seven pairs of birds 

 and four of their nests having been discovered on Loch Leven this 

 summer by Mr. W. Evans (Ann. Scott. Nat. Hist., 1898, p. 162). 

 In the west the Pintail is rare, though there is some evidence that it 

 has bred in the Hebrides, and it is uncommon in the Orkneys 

 and Shetlands. To the south and west of Ireland it is a winter- 

 visitor, and it is said to have nested, exceptionally, at Abbeyleix in 

 Queen's County, but on the whole it is local and not numerous. In 

 spring its numbers are increased by migrants from the south. 



The Pintail has nested in the Faeroes, and is generally distributed 

 in Iceland during the summer months, sometimes wandering to 

 Greenland. It breeds abundantly in the northern portions of 

 Europe ; in tolerable numbers in Holland ; and, decreasingly, down 



