194 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



" 'Nestling yellowish white on under parts, buff on forehead and throat ; 

 a dark brown streak from the forehead to crown, which with the upper 

 parts is brown ; a dark loral streak, and two other streaks from behind eye 

 to nape on each side/ (Yarrell.)" (Salvadori.) 



Genus DAFILA Stephens, 1824. 



This well-marked genus may be recognized by its elongate form, long 

 neck, and long pointed middle tail-feathers. 



161. DAFILA ACUTA (Linnseus). 

 PIN-TAIL DUCK. 



Anas acuta LINNAEUS, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 126. 



Dafila acuta SALVADORI, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1895), 27, 270; BLANFORD, 

 Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 447, fig. 116 (head) ; SHARPS, Hand- 

 List (1899), 1, 219; GATES, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 172; MC- 

 GREGOR and WORCESTER, Hand-List (1906), 38. 



Luzon (Steere E&p., Bourns & 'Worcester, McGregor). Northern Hemisphere, 

 breeding in the northern parts; south in winter to northern Africa, India, Ceylon, 

 China, and Japan and in America to Panama and Cuba. 



"Adult male. Head and upper neck plain hair-brown, darker on 

 crown, and faintly glossed on sides of occiput with purple; upper half 

 of hind neck black, with a white stripe on each side, confluent with the 

 white of lower neck and breast; lower hind neck grayish brown; back, 

 sides, and flanks waved with gray and dusky; upper tail-coverts black, 

 the median broadly edged with gray ; longer scapulars velvety black, edged 

 with whitish; wing-coverts uniform brownish gray, the last row broadly 

 tipped with cinnamon, producing a distinct bar ; primaries brownish gray, 

 darker toward the tip; speculum varying from dull metallic green to 

 bronzy purple, tipped with white, and crossed by a subterminal bar of 

 velvety black ; inner quill of the speculum velvety black with a white band 

 along the inner part of outer web; tertials gray, marked with a velvety 

 black median stripe; abdomen whitish, dusted with gray, lower flanks 

 with a buff tinge; under tail-coverts black, the outer ones white on the 

 outer web; central tail-feathers long, acuminate, and black, remainder 

 of tail-feathers dusky gray, edged with whitish. Bill blackish, with the 

 sides dull lead-blue ; feet grayish black ; iris dark brown. Length, from 

 610 to 760; wing, 280; middle tail-feathers, 184 to 240; culmen, 47 to 

 55 ; tarsus, 39 to 47. 



ff ' Adult female. Above grayish dusky, varied with irregular bars of 

 yellowish white or pale ochraceous; head and neck whitish buff, each 

 feather, except on throat, streaked with blackish ; lower parts dingy white, 

 flanks, abdomen, and under tail-coverts streaked with dusky ; wing brown, 

 smaller wing-coverts tipped with whitish; greater wing-coverts and 

 secondaries tipped with white, forming two white bars across the wing, 

 but the space between them dull brown, mottled with black, without any 



