PINTAIL DUCK. 161 



These birds form their nests in rushes and strong herbage, 

 producing seven or eight eggs, which are greenish white in 

 colour, and rather elongated in form, measuring two inches 

 one line in length, by one inch five lines in breadth. Mon- 

 tagu mentions " that the notes of the Pintail are extremely 

 soft and inward ; the courting note is always attended with 

 a jerk of the head ; the other greatly resembles that of a very 

 young kitten. In the spring the male -Pintail indicates his 

 feelings by suddenly raising his body upright in the water, and 

 bringing his bill close to his breast, uttering at the same time 

 a soft note. This gesticulation is frequently followed by a 

 singular jerk of the hinder part of the body, which in turn is 

 thrown up above the water." Montagu mentions also that 

 Pintails have bred in confinement ; and Lord Stanley in- 

 formed him he had a hybrid brood produced two seasons fol- 

 loVing between a female Pintail and a male Wigeon ; the hy- 

 brid birds laid eggs during two successive seasons, but they 

 were unproductive. In December 1831, the Honourable 

 Twiselton Fiennes exhibited at the Zoological Society a 

 specimen of a hybrid Duck, bred between a male Pintail and 

 a common Duck. It was one of a brood of six, several of 

 which were subsequently confined with the male Pintail from 

 which they sprung, and produced young. A specimen of a 

 female of this second brood was also exhibited. — Zool. Pro- 

 ceedings, 1831, page 158. 



The Pintail has been killed occasionally in different parts 

 of Ireland in winter. It is rare in Wales, Cornwall, and 

 Devon ; more common on the coasts of Dorsetshire and 

 Hampshire, particularly from Poole harbour to Lymington, 

 where it is called the Sea Pheasant, on account of the length 

 of its tail, and where it is seen in small flocks during winter. 

 It occurs also occasionally in the marine and fenny districts 

 of the eastern counties. The figure of the male on the fore- 

 ground in the illustration of the species here given, was taken 



VOL. III. M 



