232 AVES NATATORES. [ANAS. 



A winter visitant, but not of very common occurrence. According to 

 Temminck, is very abundant in Holland, frequenting the same situations 

 as the common Wild Duck. Breeds in marshes, and lays eight or nine 

 eggs. Food, fish, and aquatic insects and vegetables. 



(3. DAFILA, Leach.) 



240. A. acuta, Linn. (Pintail.) A longitudinal 

 white line on each side of the occiput ; back and flanks 

 undulated with black and grayish white; two central 

 elongated tail-feathers black. 



A. acuta, Temm. Man. cTOrn. torn. n. p. 838. Pintail Duck, 

 Mont. Orn. Diet, fy Supp. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. n. p. 356. 

 Common Pintail, Selb. Illust. vol. n. p. 311. pi. 49, & pi. 49*. f.2. 

 (Trachea,) Linn. Trans, vol. iv. pi. 13. f. 6. 



DIMENS. Entire length twenty-six inches; the same, central tail- 

 feathers excluded, twenty-four inches : length of the bill (from the fore- 

 head) two inches, (from the gape) two inches three lines ; of the tarsus 

 one inch seven lines; of the middle toe, nail included, two inches four 

 lines ; of the tail six inches ; from the carpus to the end of the wing ten 

 inches six lines. 



DE SCRIPT. (Male.) Forehead and crown umber-brown, the feathers 

 with paler edges ; rest of the head, chin, and throat, dark hair-brown, 

 slightly glossed behind the ears with purplish green : fore part of the 

 neck, and two lateral streaks passing upwards to the occiput, white ; neck 

 above deep blackish brown : the whole of the back, flanks, and sides of 

 the breast, beautifully marked with transverse undulating lines of black 

 and grayish white : scapulars black ; tertials long and acuminated, velvet 

 black, with a broadish edging of grayish white : wing-coverts and pri- 

 maries hair-brown : speculum blackish green, glossed with purple, bor- 

 dered above by a pale ferruginous bar, below by a white one : breast, 

 belly, and abdomen, white ; the latter minutely speckled with gray to- 

 wards the vent : tail, and upper coverts, dark cinereous brown, the edges 

 of the feathers paler ; two central elongated feathers, and under coverts, 

 black: bill black, the sides of the upper mandible bluish gray: legs 

 blackish gray. (Female.) Smaller than the male: head and neck red- 

 dish brown, speckled and streaked with dusky : all the upper plumage 

 blackish brown, the feathers edged with reddish white : under parts red- 

 dish yellow, obscurely spotted with brown : speculum dull, without the 

 green gloss ; bordered above with yellowish, beneath with whitish : tail 

 conical, but the two middle feathers scarcely longer than the others. Obs. 

 The male of this species (as in the case of the Shoveller) partially 

 assumes the female plumage after the expiration of the breeding season : 

 it is, however, not retained beyond the autumnal moult. (Egg.) Greenish 

 white, tinged with buif: long. diam. two inches three lines ; trans, diam. 

 one inch seven lines and a half. 



Not of unfrequent occurrence during the winter months. Breeds in 

 higher latitudes. Said to lay eight or nine eggs. Food, aquatic insects 

 and vegetables, fish, and molluscous animals. 



(4. BOSCHAS, Swains.) 



241. A. glocitans. Pall. (Eimaculated Duck.) Before 

 and behind the eyes an irregular patch of chestnut-brown ; 



