148 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
damage to the farmers, cMhing up in clouds from 
the river by night to devour the ripe grain. 
In favourable seasons the Pintail is a resident ; 
but like the Marsh-Gulls, Pigeons, the American 
Golden Plover, and all birds that live and move in 
immense bodies, it travels often and far in search 
of food or water. A season of scarcity will quickly 
cause them to disappear from the pampas; and 
sometimes, after an absence of several months, a 
day’s rain will end with the familiar sound of their 
cry and the sight of their long trains winging their 
way across the darkening heavens. 
Their nest is made on the ground, under the grass 
or thistles, at a distance from the water, and is 
plentifully lined with down plucked from the bosom 
of the sitting bird. The eggs are seven or eight in 
number and of a deep cream-colour. 
WHITE-FACED PINTAIL 
Dafila bahamensis 
Above reddish brown; feather centres blackish; tail and upper 
tail-coverts fawn ; wings slatey black; broad speculum bronze-green, 
with fawn margin above and below; edging of external secondaries 
fawn; beneath brownish fawn, covered with concealed black spots; 
throat, cheeks, and front white ; bill dark with a crimson patch at the 
base in each side; feet dark; length 18, wing 8.4 inches. Female 
similar. 
SOMEONE in the eighteenth century picked up a dead 
Duck of an unknown species on the seashore in the 
Bahama Islands; it was then sent to a naturalist in 
