164 



PINTAIL. 



The pintail breeds readily in confinement, and many 

 hybrids with the common duck have been known. "^ 

 Lord Walsing'ham informs me that for the last two 

 years (1887 and 1888) a pinioned pair have bred on his 

 waters at Stanford, and it is much to be hoped that he 

 may be as successful in naturalising this pretty species as 

 Mr. Fountaine was with the gadwall. 



The Rev. E. W. Dowell thirty years ago ased to find 

 the pintail not uncommon on the marshes at Blakeney 

 in winter, and has seen them going north, in the month 

 of March, already paired, and at such times in very poor 

 condition . 



In the cold spring of 1855 Mr. Stevenson says 

 pintails were seen on Ranworth Broad as late as the 7tli 

 April, and Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., has a male in full 

 plumage, showing some of the rusty colour underneath, 

 which was killed at Horsey as late as the 14tli May, 

 1842. Although there is no positive knowledge of its 

 having bred in this county in a state of nature, Hunt 

 ("British Ornithology" ii., p. 293) believed tliat such 

 was occasionally the case, and says, " we have seen several 

 specimens exposed for sale in Norwich Market, during 

 the months of June and July, at which times they 

 appeared to be in an intermediate state of plumage 

 between the two sexes." Mr. Booth writes (" Rough 

 Notes," part xiii.) under date of the 28th May, 1878, 

 " a pair were often observed on and around the ' Hills ' 

 on Hickling Broad, and that latterly the drake (an exceed- 

 ingly brightly marked bird) was usually seen alone. I 

 also ascertained that, a short time previously, a duck's 

 nest with eight eggs, supposed to be that of a shoveler, 

 had been taken by a maishman on the same hill these 

 birds frequented. As it is improbable that the natives 

 were well acquainted with the eggs of either species, 

 this clutch may possibly have belonged to the pintail." 



It was probably this species which Sir Thomas 

 Browne calls the " sea phaysant, holding some resem- 

 blance unto that bird in some fethers in the tayle," 



*Cf. Newton, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1860, p. 338, pi. 1''8, for a remark- 

 able iiiHtauce of tlie hybrid offspring of a common duck and a 

 pintail proving fertile /«?«• 8e. 



