120 COMMON PINTAIL. 



free, without a lobe ; neck, tail, and scapulars 



elongated. 

 Types. D. caudacuta, capensis. Europe, Asia, 



Africa, America. 

 Note. Gregarious, feed chiefly on vegetables; 



lacustrine or fluviatile. 



COMMON PINTAIL, DAFILA CAUDACUTA. Anas 

 caudacuta, Ray. Anas acuta, Linn. Common 

 Pintail or Sea Pheasant of British authors. This 

 beautiful duck is only a periodical visitant with us, 

 arriving late in autumn, and occurring chiefly during 

 winter, both in the decoys and inland lakes and 

 fens of the south, and on the coasts of the north of 

 England and Scotland. In Scotland, however, it is 

 by no means frequent, and it is nearly certain, as 

 Mr. Selby has remarked, that the long-tailed duck 

 or Harelda glacialis has been mistaken for it on the 

 Western Islands and northern coasts, where its pre- 

 sence has been recorded as frequent. In the south 

 of Scotland a few specimens have occurred to us 

 every winter, and we once shot a pair in immature 

 dress in the month of September feeding at dusk on 

 some wet stubble, in company with the mallard 

 and common teal. We have occasionally observed 

 them in this state of plumage in small numbers, 

 mingling for a short period with the mallard, about 

 or rather previous to the period of the migration 

 and arrival of the winter birds of passage. Through 

 the whole of winter and spring also, specimens 



