54 BIRDS OF ICELAND 



i: Dafila acuta (Linn.). Pintail. 



Native names: ' Grasond ' (Grass-duck), 'Grafond' (an 

 apparent corruption of the former, which I have 

 not heard), ' Langviu-graond.' 



A summer visitor, not very uncommon, especially 

 in the north. I have found it fairly common near 

 Myvatn, and have taken eggs there and in other 

 places. The nest is placed within easy reach of water, 

 but usually in a dryish spot amongst willow bushes 

 and decumbent shrubs, and is generally well lined 

 with dead leaves, and subsequently, about the time 

 that incubation is contemplated, with down. The eggs 

 are rather small for the size of the bird, are six to nine 

 in number, and of a greenish buff colour, measuring 

 under 2^ inches in lenoth. The food of the bird is 

 chiefly vegetable, varied with fresh-water mollusca, and 

 such insects and larvae as may come in its way in the 

 fresh-water lakes, tarns, and rivers where it prefers 

 to feed : it is therefore an excellent bird for the table. 



The drake is a handsome fellow, with a brown head 

 and neck showing a bronze gloss, white throat and 

 underparts, back and sides white finely vermiculated 

 with black, wing brown with a glossy green white- 

 edged speculum, and two central tail-feathers which 

 are narrow and black, projecting three inches or a 

 little more beyond the rest of the tail. Length, 

 including the tail, 26 to 28 inches; wing lOi inches. 

 The female is rather like that of the Wild Duck 



