382 ANATID^. 



The Pintail is stated by Sir R. Payne-Gallwey to be rather 

 local in Ireland, and rarely to be met with on the great 

 loughs of the north ; but south of Athloue, and especially 

 on the estuaries of Clare. Connaught and Kerry, they are 

 numerous. He says that he has seen female Pintails with 

 young broods in June, on Loughs Mask and Corrib, and in 

 summer on Lough Liagh, Connemara ; and he asserts, appar- 

 ently on the authority of the Hon. B. Fitzpatrick, that one 

 or two pairs breed every year at Abbeyleix, Queen's County, 

 in Lord Castletown's famous duck-preserves. Confirmation 

 of this would be interesting. 



The Pintail has been known to breed in the Faeroes ; it 

 appears to be of general distribution in Iceland during the 

 summer months; and in Greenland it is of accidental 

 occurrence. Its breeding-range extends over Scandinavia, 

 Denmark, Northern and Central Germany, Poland, and a 

 great part of Russia ; the species being generally distributed 

 over the rest of Europe on migration. Mr. Abel Chapman 

 observed about a dozen adult males at Santa Olaya, Anda- 

 lucia, so late as the 8th of May. In winter it is found 

 throughout the Mediterranean ; Northern Africa ; Egypt ; 

 Asia Minor; India as far south as Ceylon and Burmah; 

 Borneo ; China ; and Japan ; its summer range stretching 

 over Central and Northern Asia, up to, and even beyond, 

 the Arctic Circle. The Pintail is also generally distributed 

 throughout North America, from Alaska to Labrador in 

 summer ; its migrations extending over the greater part of 

 the United States, and down to Mexico, the Antilles, Costa 

 Rica, and Panama. 



The nest of the Pintail is made in rushes and strong 

 herbage ; the eggs, usually seven or eight in number, are 

 greenish-white in colour, rather elongated in form, and 

 average in measurements 2*1 by 1'4 in. The flight of this 

 species is extremely rapid, but no particular order or figure 

 is observed among the ' skeins.' Flocks consisting entirely 

 of males are not uncommon. It is observed to feed by 

 preference in shallow water, and it selects plants, especially 

 Equisetum, insects and their larva?, and mollusca. Jardine 



