116 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 22 3 



similar mouth markings and gape wattles of the two. He thought 

 that the young pintail grew more rapidly than the young waxbiUs, 

 and would have left the nest sooner had it not been collected. 



Young Out of the Nest 



The data discussed in the previous section indicate that the develop- 

 ing pintail shows no aggressive hostility toward its nest mates, as we 

 find in the comparable stage of many of the cuckoos and honey-guides, 

 and not even the intense competition for food, as we find with cow- 

 birds. The young pintail does not crowd out, kill, or otherwise 

 eliminate its rightful nest mates, and for a short time after leaving 

 the nest they remain together. While I have found what seemed 

 to be full}^ fledged young pintails in assemblages of young waxbills, 

 they do not remain together very long (how long is not known). 

 Before they begin their postjuvenal molt, the young pintails often 

 form flocks of their own. I have seen as many as 15 to 20 together, 

 sometimes with 1 or more adults of their owm species. 



Both V. G. L. van Someren (1917, pp. 288-289) and Pope-Ellis 

 (1951, p. 126) tell of seeing two fledgling pintails attended and fed 

 by their foster parents. Skead (in litt.) sent me notes on a fledgling 

 pintail covering 5 days of its postnestling stage. This pintail was 

 first seen on January 5 together with a young common waxbill and 

 the two foster parents. Two days later the pintail joined a flock 

 of about 40 adult waxbills feeding on the ground. On January 9 it 

 was seen alone, feeding at the edge of a path; five adult pintail 

 males and two in striped plumage flew in and fed close to it, but 

 did not pay any special attention to it. 



Apparently in captivity the pintail may show some parental 

 behavior toward fledged young of its oa\ti species. W. T. Page 

 (1914, p. 39), inspected a reported rearing of a young pintail by 

 a pair of ribbon finches (Amadina fasciata) in the aviaries of Anningson. 

 He foujid that the young bird had already left the nest in which it 

 had been reared, and that the adult pintails in the cage "watched 

 over it and occasionally fed it as also did the ribbon finches." Un- 

 fortunately no details of this case w^ere given; we are not informed 

 whether botJi or only one sex of the pintails fed the young pintail. 



Food and Feeding Habits 



The food of the pintail comprises primarily small seeds gathered 

 on or near the ground. In about 20 gizzards examined in the course 

 of my field studies, I found no other identifiable food materials. As 

 many as 75 seeds were found in one specimen. The only food items 

 noted in the diet given nestlings by their foster parents were seeds, 

 but it would be surprising if the waxbills and other hosts did not feed 



