ANAS ACUTA. DAT 
contained four eggs. The place was marshy, a few yards from the 
forest, on the rise of the hill. At midnight I went again to try to 
obtain the bird; it was just taking a circle over the nest, and it 
bent its long neck down to see that all was safe. I had a good look 
at it, as the sun was still shining. Twelve hours afterwards I had a 
shot at it, as it rose rather wildly, but it did not seem to be hurt, 
and, as I had to continue my journey, I now reluctantly took the 
eggs; but I hoped the down would serve to identify them, for 
amongst it were several breast-feathers, In the meantime, if I could 
trust my eyes, the bird was a hen Pintail. The eggs were perhaps 
a week sat upon, and just like the others I had attributed to the 
same bird. On the 18th of June, I and my line of beaters put 
up the old ones from three nests at different times in the course of 
the twenty-four hours in a large marsh. I saw two very well, one 
of which I examined with my glass as it stood with its neck up in 
an open space some sixty or seventy yards off. It was an un- 
mistakable Pintail. All the eggs were nearly hatching, and the 
young, of which I preserved one or two, were apparently all of 
the same species. I also kept the down and scattered feathers from 
each nest, and now I considered I had genuine Pintails’ eggs of my 
own taking. But the most permanent proof was still wanting—the 
skin of a bird I myself should obtain from the nest. 
It was not till last season that I got this last proof. On the 
20th of May, 1854, I visited the same marsh and in a littie wooded 
island of a few yards in circuit a Duck rose almost under my feet 
and I shot it, feeling sure that 1t was a Pintail, as it proved to be. 
There were six eggs a day or two sat upon. I wrote upon them 
as they were blown, and entered the circumstances in my note-book, 
as is my usual practice. The nest was made of a few twigs mixed 
and lined with down from the mother’s breast. It is usually made 
of long bleached grass or anything that comes to hand. The white- 
centred down with finely grained filaments, mixed as it is with grey- 
white feathers, is quite characteristic, though not much unlike that 
of one or two other Ducks. The bird breeds generally in marshes 
and not very near large pieces of water. The eggs seem to be 
usually six or seven in number. The people do not get many of 
them, as they are in uncertain and often distant spots, and when 
found are generally sat upon—the Pintail being one of the earliest 
breeders among the Ducks. They appear as soon as the water 
begins to open, and may be scen standing in pairs at the edge of the 
2N2 
