WHITE-FACED PINTAIL 149 
Europe who had the naming of all the creatures, and 
quite naturally he gave it the name of Bahamensis. 
And although we know that the duck does not 
inhabit the Bahamas, but is found throughout South 
America from British Guiana to Patagonia, and that 
it is one of the commonest Ducks in Brazil, there is 
a wise ornithological rule which forbids us, while the 
world endures, to call it anything but the Bahama 
Duck or Pintail. I was obliged to give it that name in 
Argentine Ornithology, but I think readers of this book 
in South America will henceforth prefer to call it by 
the name I have given it here. Doubtless there are 
other Pintail Ducks with white faces, but this has 
not given a name to any other species. The Brown 
Pintail is our most abundant species in Argentina, 
and I have noticed in flocks of great size, sometimes 
of many thousands, of that duck, that a single White- 
faced Duck in the flock could be detected at a long 
distance by means of that same snowy whiteness of 
the face. 
On the Pampas and Patagonia it is not a common 
Duck and is almost invariably seen in pairs. I have, 
however, sometimes seen three or four together. 
