PINTAIL. t35 



white of the fore-neck and under parts. The long 

 feathers growing from the third bone of the wing are 

 pale gray, with a black strip down the middle. The 

 long scapulars, or shoulder feathers, are black, edged 

 with whitish. The upper and under tail-coverts are 

 black, touched with white on the outside, forming a 

 line of white. The tail feathers are mostly gray and 

 brown, but the long central pair, which are narrow and 

 pointed, and extend far beyond the others, are black. 

 The bill is bluish-gray, eyes brown, and the legs and 

 feet gray. Length, 26-30 inches ; wing, over 10 inches. 

 The female is one of the plain grayish ducks, resem- 

 bling in a general way the female mallard, or the female 

 green-winged teal. The ground color of the upper 

 parts is rusty or whitish, streaked with dusky or brown- 

 ish. The chin and throat are whitish ; the wing-coverts 

 brownish-gray, edged with white. The under parts are 

 white, streaked with dusky. The bird is always to be 

 distinguished by its bill and its feet. 



The pintail ib a bird of wide distribution, inhabiting 

 the whole of the northern hemisphere, from Alaska on 

 the west to Japan and Northern Kamschatka on the 

 east. In America it is found all over the country, at dif- 

 ferent seasons of the year, from ocean to ocean, and 

 from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Sea. 

 In winter it is found in Cuba also. Although breeding 

 in Alaska, on the Mackenzie River, and in Greenland, it 

 is also a summer resident of the Western United States, 

 and breeds in considerable numbers in Dakota, Idaho, 

 Montana and Wyoming. I have found their nests there 



