12 INDIAN SPOETING BIKDS 



seldom utters it. The drake when courting shows off Hke the 

 mallard, but is rarely seen to do so. In fact, though as a 

 sporting bird the pintail is unrivalled among the ducks, and has 

 few equals among other groups, from the naturalist's point of 

 view he is disappointing, in spite of his elegant and refined 

 appearance. 



Pintail, like mallard, are found all round the world, but only 

 breed in high northern latitudes as a rule ; wild-bred hybrids 

 with the mallard sometimes occur, but such have never turned 

 up in India. These much resemble rather delicately shaped 

 and tinted mallard, but have the tail only curved, not curled, 

 the head less richly glossed, and the breast light-fawn, not 

 chocolate. This hybrid, by the way, is quite fertile in captivity. 



In Bengal pintail are called Dighans or Sho-lon-cho ; in 

 Sind Koharali or Drighush ; Digunch in Nepal and Laitunga 

 in Manipur, while another Hindustani name besides Sink-par 

 is Sank. 



Shoveller. 



Spatula chjpeata. Ticlari, Hindustani. 



The long and broad-tipped bill of the shoveller, very like a 

 shoeing-horn in shape, and provided along the edges with a comb 

 of horny sifting-plates, is so characteristic that anyone could 

 pick the owner out in the dark by merely feeling its beak. It is 

 therefore unnecessary to go into any details about the plumage of 

 the mottled-brown female, but in justice to the drake it must be 

 mentioned that he combines the mallard's green head with the 

 pintail's white breast, and wings bluer than the garganey's with 

 flanks and belly redder than the Brahminy. 



He is, in fact, a very flashy-looking bird when in colour, but 

 in undress plumage he is very like his brown mate, but is dis- 

 tinguishable by having the blue wing-patch. Even his bill at 

 this time changes colour, from jet-black to the olive and orange 

 of the female. He keeps his undress a long time, not coming 

 into colour as a rule before Christmas. Take away his bill and 

 wings, and the shoveller is a rather small duck, only weighing 

 about a pound and a half with those appendages included. 



