DAFILA ACUTA 'lid 



Deccan (some writers have found it less rare than he did) ; and 

 Vidal says : — 



" Pin-Tails are to be seen in some years in small parties in the 

 large duck ground at the junction of the Vashishti and Fagbudi 

 Rivers (South Konkan), but they come late and go early." 



Nidification. — The breeding range of the Pintail is practically 

 that of the gadwall, but it reaches further north, and, on the other 

 hand, does not reach so far south: for whereas the gadwall breeds 

 as far south as the 46^, Hume places the limit for the Pintail 10" 

 further north. It breeds in Northern Europe, and eggs and young 

 have been found in the north of the British Isles themselves, and 

 it extends thence throughout Northern Asia. 



The nest is a rather loose structure of grasses, flags, rushes, and 

 similar material, lined, not very thickly as a rule, with down and 

 feathers; and the eggs are generally laid in early May, though the date 

 depends a great deal on the locality ; in the bird's southern limits the 

 eggs may be laid as early as the end of April, and in its northern haunts 

 from April to August. The earliest eggs taken by Seebohm in Siberia 

 were on the 5th of June. He also describes the nests as being placed 

 " in the grass among the shrubs in dry places, generalh' at some 

 distance from the water ; they were deep and well-lined with dead 

 grass and sedge, and, when the full clutch was laid, contained plenty 

 of down." During the breeding season, i.e., April to August, the 

 Pintail haunts swamps and marshes which are more or less covered 

 with vegetation — the pools, such as there are, of open water, being 

 confined to i^atches here and there, surrounded with bush, forest, or 

 other cover. Open waters, such as lakes, rivers, or similar pieces of 

 water, it avoids altogether ; nor is it any use hunting the banks and 

 margins of such for the nests, which will almost invariably be found 

 in the places first mentioned. 



Morris, in ' Nests and Eggs of British Birds,' says : — 



" Of this species, also, the nest is placed by the margin of, or at 

 no great distance from water, lakes, ponds and seas, and is com- 

 posed of grass and reeds with a little lining of down. Some have 

 been found in ditches and even in standing corn : it is always well- 

 concealed. 



" These ducks pair in .\piil. 



