PINTAIL. 535 



breeds much more sparingly, but its eggs are occasionally taken in North 

 Germany, Russia, and Siberia as far south as lat. 50°, and, it is said, in the 

 Caucasus. It migrates both along the coasts and the great river-valleys, 

 and winters throughout South Europe, Northern Africa, Asia Minor, 

 Persia, India, and Ceylon. It passes through Turkestan and Mongolia on 

 migration, and winters in Burma, China, and Japan. On the American 

 continent it breeds in the same latitudes as in the Old World, and is found 

 in winter throughout the Southern States, Mexico, and Central America. 

 It has no very near ally. 



The long neck and long pointed tail give to the Pintail a somewhat more 

 slender appearance than that of most of its kind. It belongs to the fresh- 

 water group of Ducks, breeding in the midst of moors, lakes, rivers, and 

 swamps, but on migration and in winter spending most of its time on the 

 sea-shore, to feed on the mud-flats at low tide. It is one of the earliest 

 Ducks to arrive in spring, and one of the latest to leave in autumn. If 

 the ground be not covered with snow, it makes its appearance in North 

 Germany about the middle of March, and passes through again during the 

 month of October, remaining in November until it is frozen out. In its 

 habits it most closely resembles the Mallard, feeding, like the other 

 freshwater Ducks, partly on insects and mollusks, and partly on the ends 

 of grass and the buds of water-plants, but, like the Mallard, it fre- 

 quents the stubble-fields in autumn to pick up the fallen grain. Its voice 

 closely resembles that of the Mallard and Shoveller, but on the whole it is 

 a silent bird. This may be accounted for by its extreme wariness : it takes 

 such great care to avoid danger, that its alarm-note of quaak is not often 

 required. Its call-note is a low kah; and Naumann says that, in the 

 pairing- season, the male may be seen swimming round the female utterino- 

 a deep clilk, which, if the observer be fortunate enough to be sufficientlv 

 near to hear it, is preceded by a sound like the dra wing-in of the breath, 

 and followed by a low grating note. 



When Harvie-Brown and I were at Ust Zylma, on the banks of the 

 Petchora, waiting for summer to come, we saw one of the most interesting 

 episodes in the history of migration that I have ever witnessed. The river 

 Zylma enters the Petchora opposite the village, and when the melting of the 

 snow in the valley of the Upper Petchora causes the great river to rise, its 

 waters flow up the little stream, which overflows its banks, floods the low- 

 lying meadows in many places, and forms little lakes and small fjords or 

 couriers of open water a week or more before the ice breaks up. The Ses- 

 sedatel of Ust Zylma, Mons. Znaminski (one of the few Russian oflicials 

 who deserves the honourable title of gentleman, and who has since, I am 

 happy to hear, been promoted to be Ispravnik of Ust Ishma), had a shooting- 

 box some miles up the river, and invited us to join him and the Postmaster 

 in an expedition to shoot outka or Ducks. On the 19th of May we hired a 



